wiliwilitree

Wailea 670 Not Living Up to Conditions

When the Wailea 670 (Honua’ula) development was granted a zoning change from agricultural 30 conditions were imposed as Maui County law.  Sierra Club observes that not all these conditions are being met and has filed a lawsuit challenging the Wailea 670 EIS.

Additionally, the Sierra Club has submitted testimony to the County Council for the annual review of Wailea 670 (Honua’ula) condition compliance pointing out the conditions that the developer is violating.  This is the testimony:

From: Sierra Club Maui Group May 21, 2013
PO Box 791180, Paia, HI 96779

To: County Council Planning Committee
Re: Agenda Item CC 13-156PC Honua’ula Partners LLC Annual Compliance Report

Greetings Committee Chair Couch and Committee Members

Sierra Club Maui volunteers participated for many years in the rezoning review process for Wailea 670/Honua’ula. We supported the Council’s work in setting conditions on the project to mitigate potential impacts.

We urged HPL to issue an updated Environmental Impact Statement to inform the public and policymakers about what was planned. Since that was not done, the Council worked extra hard to craft conditions to provide for needed infrastructure improvements, mitigate traffic, drainage and lighting impacts, create recreational opportunities for local youth and protect cultural and natural resources found on the site.

HPL is required by condition 29 to submit annual compliance reports on the 30 conditions. Citizens expect these rezoning conditions to be implemented in good faith.

We urge the Council to get independent information about the status of compliance. For example, condition 20 requires marine monitoring studies. The data from these studies is required to be transmitted to the Dept of Health (water quality data) and the Division of Aquatic Resources (ecological data.)

The 2013 compliance report informs you that “ annual reports have been continually updated, transmitted to the Department of Health.” Key information about full compliance is ommitted.

No mention is made of whether the ecological reports are sent to the DAR. No mention is made of whether the reports sent to the DOH are being used as part of the State’s Integrated Report of Assessed Waters prepared under Clean Water Act Sections 303(d) and 305(b), as is clearly the intention of Condition 20

Our inquiries to DAR administration is that they have no record of receiving any reports from the HPL consultant for the agreed upon monitoring area.

In reading the 2012 Integrated Report of Assessed Waters a number of Maui marine locations covered by this monitoring condition are consistently listed as having insufficient data. While the data may be transmitted to the DOH, it may not be in format that the agency can easily use.

It is our hope that the Council could close the information loop and make sure that the agencies who this condition is meant to benefit are receiving the information that has been described in the language of the condition in a form where it can be useful. The whole point is to have a science-based process to recognize any impacts to nearshore water as they may develop, and seek to mitigate harm being done.

If the data is not getting delivered, or not getting plugged into the right part of the process, it makes Condition 20 totally ineffectual.

Mahalo for your attention to this matter

Sierra Club Maui Group

wiliwilitree

Sierra Club Files Challenge to Wailea 670 EIS

Rare native wiliwili forest occupies planned development location, Wailea 670.

The Sierra Club and Maui Unite have filed a legal challenge the Maui Planning Commission’s approval of a final environmental impact statement for the Honua’ula project in South Maui.

Old growth native wiliwili forest plants need 130-acre preserve to survive. Wailea 670 EIS says 40-acres is all that is needed. Does the EIS follow the law? View more plants of the Wailea 670 native forest we need to protecthere

In a lawsuit filed Friday in 2nd Circuit Court, the Sierra Club and Maui Unite allege the environmental study violates the Hawaii Environmental Policy Act by failing to adequately address impacts of the 670-acre development above Wailea Resort. The project is expected to include 1,400 housing units, an 18-hole golf course and clubhouse, a 12-mile network of trails and bike paths and a 40-acre preserve for native plants.According to the lawsuit, the EIS inadequacies include:

* Failure to adequately address cultural and archaeological issues by relying on an incomplete archaeological inventory survey for the project.

* Failure to adequately discuss alternative designs to protect a 130-acre native plant/cultural preserve in the project.

* Failure to adequately address preservation of historic Kanaio-Kalama Park Road. Its route and width will be changed around the proposed golf course, according to the lawsuit.

* Failure to address impacts resulting from 250 off-site affordable housing units near the planned Piilani Promenade and Maui Outlet projects. Plans for the two shopping malls have “dramatically changed” the proposed use and impacts of the 88-acre site, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit says harm from the $1.2 billion project would include increased traffic, urban sprawl, loss of open space, loss of use of traditional trails and roads for exercise, recreational activities and cultural activities, loss of unique and sensitive habitat for threatened and endangered species and “irretrievable” loss of known archaeological and cultural resources.

According to the lawsuit, the southern end of the project includes more than 130 acres “considered to be one of the last remaining low-elevation native dryland forest habitats on Maui.”

Although the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recommends protection of at least 130 acres of the dryland forest and a Maui County ordinance requires a conservation easement of 130 acres, landowner Honua’ula Partners proposes to build a golf course and luxury view homes on about 100 acres of the native habitat, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit seeks to have that approval declared invalid. The lawsuit also seeks preliminary and injunctive relief to stop the development.

Wailea 670/Honua’ula EIS 

solarpanel

Henry Curtis: HELCO Ignores Residential PV

By Henry Curtis 05/15/2013
A year ago the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission (PUC) opened a regulatory proceeding on Integrated Resource Planning (IRP). The HECO Companies (HECO, MECO, and HELCO) were given a year to develop short-term Action Plans and evaluate how utility actions would be impacted by different long-term possible future scenarios. The PUC created a 68-member Advisory Group, to be overseen by an Independent Entity (IE), to help the utilities create these Action Plans. Continue reading →

Open Ocean Aquaculture

The Project:

Hawaii Ocean Technology’s (HOT) has been granted a Conservation District Use Application for its ahi aquaculture project. They plan to use 247 acres off the north Kohala coast of the island of Hawaii to hold 12 orb-like cages for growing tuna for export outside of Hawai’i.

Read why ten eminent scientists recommend against instituting aquaculture fisheries in the Gulf of Mexico Continue reading →

Water on Maui