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Share 0 On April 1, the City & County of Honolulu filed in federal court a motion to dismiss claims by the Marconi Point Condominiums’ developer that the Department of Planning and Permitting improperly decided several years ago that a Special Management Area permit was required for farm dwelling and agricultural warehouse construction. At the same time, the city has agreed with a recent motion by the developer’s Marconi-related companies to remotely depose architect William Wong and former DPP building plan examiner Kanani Padeken, both of whom are in federal prison for bribery. The com ..read more

Share 0 The Hawaiʻi-based longline fishing fleet has chafed for years under a management plan that limits the number of animals belonging to the Hawaiʻi pelagic population of false killer whales that the fleet can seriously injure or kill in the normal course of hauling in the miles-long fishing lines the vessels set out. Should a certain number of false killer whales be seriously injured or killed by the fleet inside the Exclusive Economic Zone, a large portion of the fishing area south of the Main Hawaiian Islands is to be closed to longline fishing for the rest of the year in which the an ..read more

Share 0 Forefeiture: Six acres of Kona land acquired by disgraced former Hawaiʻi County housing staffer Alan Rudo and his three associates through the use of affordable housing credits acquired by deceit are now being offered for sale. The asking price is $1.139 million. The property – two lots along Kealakaʻa Street in the Kealakehe Homesteads area – is being sold subject to a 55-year lease to Honuaʻula LLC, which calls for payment of $7,000 a month lease rent, an affordable housing agreement signed by the former landowner, West View Development, and the County of Hawaiʻi in 2015, and a dev ..read more

Share 0 Rising seas. Increasing disease threats. Accumulated chemical pollutants in top predators. All this spells trouble for marine mammals in Hawaiian waters, especially two of the most endangered species: monk seals and the insular population of false killer whales. At recent meetings in Hawaiʻi and California, scientists studying these animals described the threats in detail. Three of the gravest threats are: Sea level rise. This has diminished the land available for monk seals to bear their pups. The three main pupping islands at French Frigate Shoals have disappeared and seals are cr ..read more

Share 0 Despite years-long drought conditions for much of the island of Hawaiʻi, the Hawaiʻi County Planning Department defends its use of 2007 rainfall data as the “best available data.” This was acknowledged by Planning Director Zendo Kern as the county Board of Appeals considered a challenge to Kern’s approval of a subdivision in North Kohala. The subdivision had been sought by the owner, Anderson Big Island Investments, LLC, of a 1.4-acre lot proposing subdividing it into three lots. The zoning, requiring minimum lot sizes of 15,000 square feet, allowed for the subdivision, but the count ..read more

Share 0 After years of complaints from members of the public, the Honolulu Department of Planning and Permitting has begun to crack down on illegal farm dwelling and other development at the Marconi Point Condominiums on Oʻahu’s North Shore. In late March and early April, the DPP issued notices for the following violations: Unit 1, owned by Yue-Sai Kan, has a raised agricultural structure on it that the DPP allowed to be built without permits after Kan promised that it would not require electricity or plumbing. Recent inspections by the DPP found that the structure indeed had been upgraded w ..read more

Share 0 On March 8, the state Board of Land and Natural Resources approved a 25-year, non-exclusive easement and immediate right-of-entry permit to Western Community Crossroads LC for a 710-square-foot rock revetment in Lāʻie, Oʻahu. The revetment spans the front of the property held by Western Community Crossroads and that of three other owners. According to a notarized letter from the property’s previous owner, the revetment’s construction in “the 1962 to 1963 timeframe” predated the establishment of the Conservation District, which would make the seawall a non-conforming use. The Departme ..read more

Share 0 At the February 20 meeting of the Commission on Water Resource Management, commissioners and members of the public alike praised the Maui Department of Water Supply for the plan it had drafted with its consultant, Corolla Engineers, to conserve water and address water shortages in the county. But there remains the question of whether private companies that control a large share of the county’s water delivery systems will buy into the plan, if and when its water conservation triggers and measures are adopted by the Maui County Council. The issue loomed large in the minds of commission ..read more

Share 0 False killer whale. Credit: Robin Baird FKW Trigger Lowered: The National Marine Fisheries Service has reduced the level of observer coverage in the deep-set longline fishery of Hawaiʻi. And as the level of observer coverage is lowered, so, too, is the number of false killer whales that the fishery is allowed to take before the fishery is closed out of a large area of fishing grounds south of the islands, extending from the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument, in the west, to beyond the easternmost tip of the Big Island, in the east. NMFS has set at 16 the number of pelagic fa ..read more