Litigation Station: Coco Palms and East Maui

by Wayne Tanaka | Reading time: 4 minutes

Coco Palms

How much longer can a developer string along the Kauaʻi Planning Commission, after continuing to fail to make any meaningful progress under a special management area permit supposedly “grandfathered” by a 30-year-old ordinance - now repealed - intended to help Kauaʻi recover from Hurricane ʻIniki?

This is the question being asked by the Sierra Club Kauaʻi Group, along with co-petitioners Hawaiʻi Alliance for Progressive Action, the Surfrider Foundation Kauaʻi Group, and Sierra Club Kauaʻi Group Chair Judy Dalton in her individual capacity, in a petition filed with the Planning Commission by seasoned attorney Teri Tico, concerning the highly controversial Coco Palms Hotel redevelopment plan.

In 1991, the Coco Palms Hotel, built in Wailuanuihoʻāno, was destroyed by Hurricane ʻIniki. Shortly thereafter, the County Planning Commission allowed property owners to redevelop their properties in the same footprint without going through the normally rigorous permitting procedures that would have otherwise been required, pursuant to the county’s new “ʻIniki Ordinances.” While many landowners successfully took advantage of these ordinances, multiple attempts to redevelop the Coco Palms site failed, due to financing and engineering challenges as well as community opposition and concerns over the impacts that the hotel’s redevelopment would have on Native Hawaiian burials and cultural sites, as well as on the adjacent shoreline area.

In 2014, the County Council rescinded the ‘Iniki Ordinances, finding that they were no longer needed; however, the County Planning Commission granted the then-developers of Coco Palms an extension of the applicability of the ‘Iniki Ordinances. This extension was based on the developer’s representations that the redevelopment of the property would take place in the near future.

In 2015, a special management area permit was issued to the then-developers under the ‘Iniki Ordinances. Notably, the shoreline certification for this special management area permit was based on a shoreline that, thanks to sea level rise and coastal erosion, has ceased to exist for years.

Now, the validity of this permit is in question, as Kauaʻi’s laws state that “substantial progress” must be made within two years of a special management area permit’s issuance for it to remain valid; it appears that no such determination had been made, or likely could have been made, within the necessary timeframe. The Coco Palms developer’s progress report in the summer of 2022 in fact indicated that out of all the conditions of the permit (including subparts), only eleven (11) conditions were "complete," with twenty-two (22) still "ongoing'" and nine (9) still "forthcoming."

Despite longstanding and community-wide calls for a community-driven, culturally appropriate plan for the property, developers have tried - and failed - time and again to redevelop the Coco Palms Hotel, relying on its outdated special management area permit. With this petition, the Sierra Club Kaua‘i Group and their co-petitioners could help put an end to the lost-in-time limbo of this ever more controversial project, and provide a real opportunity for an alternative, sustainable, and culturally based vision for this beleaguered site to be finally realized.

Sign up for the Kauaʻi Group’s mailing list for updates on possible Planning Commission action on the petition in the coming months, and how you can testify in support.

East Maui Streams Update

One year after the Sierra Club of Hawaiʻi filed a petition with the Commission on Water Resource Management to establish minimum stream flow requirements that could meaningfully protect the public trust in 12 East Maui streams, a decision on the matter may finally be at hand.

At its September 2022 meeting, the Water Commission reviewed a draft staff recommendation - based on months of prior staff presentations and discussion - to establish meaningful minimum stream flow standards for the streams of Kōlea, Punalu‘u, Ka‘aiea, ‘O‘opuola, Puehu, Naʻiliʻilihaele, Kailua, Hanawana, Hoalua, Waipi‘o, Mokupapa, and Ho‘olawa. Like too many streams across the islands, and unlike other streams in East Maui, these streams have continued to suffer from a lack of protection for stream flows necessary to provide for the native plants, animals, aquifers, and communities that depend on them. As a result, there have been and still are no requirements to prevent these streams from being drained dry by corporate stream diverters.

Now, Water Commission Action to take formal action on the Sierra Club’s petition may take place as early as this month! Based on the September meeting, Sierra Club Maui Group members will be pressing the Commission to ensure that they account for all water uses, and that additional stream flow be restored accordingly. Be sure to sign up for action alerts, talking points, and ways that you can help support the historic return of water to these East Maui streams.