A long-planned gondola tour project in Waialua hit a roadblock after the Honolulu City Council urged the city planning department to reject a permit for the project on Wednesday.
In 2019, the Department of Planning and Permitting approved permits for Kaukonahua Ranch in Waialua for a proposed 2,320-acre ranch across nine parcels that would raise cattle, crops such as breadfruit and taro, koa and sandalwood trees, and more.
The project would also appeal to tourists, with plans including a gondola to transport visitors, ziplines, retail stalls and a 14-acre agribusiness center. All told, the project anticipated 1,650 visitors per day.
While tax records name only Kaukonahua Ranch LLC as the owner of the land, DPP permit records indicate the project is the brainchild of Joey Houssian, a British Columbia businessman who founded The Adventure Group, an eco-tourism company based in Canada.
When DPP approved the project permits, it set forth a list of 17 conditions that the applicant would need to satisfy. Six years later, it is unclear whether several of those conditions have been met.
For example, the permit required that at least 50% of the project site be dedicated to active agricultural use, that the developers draft water use, wildfire mitigation and invasive species plans, that the project be evaluated by the State Historic Preservation Division for potential impacts to historic properties, and more. According to a resolution urging DPP to reject its permit for the project, those criteria may not have been met.
Moreover, state laws have changed since 2019, and several land uses that may have been permissible under the aegis of “agribusiness” six years ago no longer apply to the state’s current definition of “agritourism.” Food and beverage sales and retail activities, for example, are not covered under the current state definition.
Consequently, the City Council approved on Wednesday a resolution to nullify the 2019 permits, to the cheers of Waialua residents and Hawaiian cultural practitioners opposed to the project.
While many testifiers said Wednesday they had been opposed to the project since its inception, opposition was renewed over the summer, when a joint meeting of four neighborhood boards — North Shore, Wahiawā, Mililani Mauka and Mililani Waipi‘o — convened to discuss the project.
At that joint meeting, residents criticized the Ranch’s failure to properly engage with the project, claiming that the developer had never made any public presentations to the community.
Residents also criticized a series of proposed changes to the project that would substantially alter the terms of the original permit. Said changes included modifying bike and gondola routes, replacing composting toilets with conventional restrooms, slashing the planned forestry use from more than 600 acres to 51 acres and eliminating entirely the 322 acres planned for agroforestry use.
Many of those residents held court at Wednesday’s council meeting for more than an hour urging for the permit to be rescinded.
“This developer has used loopholes to launch a commercial enterprise and bypass zoning laws using agriculture as a means to get that through,” said rancher Mike Pietsch.
Pietsch and many others pointed out that the 2019 permit was considered a “minor” conditional use permit by the DPP, even though the scope of the project should have warranted a “major” permit, which requires more scrutiny and public engagement.
Native Hawaiian testifiers argued against the use of Mount Ka‘ala as the site for the project. Kalei Salcedo told the developers “if you want to destroy something, go back to your hale, your home and go destroy there.”
‘Āhuimanu Councilwoman Esther Kia‘āina highlighted a comment by Col. Rachel Sullivan, U.S. Army Garrison Hawai‘i Commander, that suggested the project would also interfere with military activities on the island.
“It is evident that the developer … did not know or understand the level of military training above or adjacent to the property prior to purchase,” read Sullivan’s comment.
Not appearing at the hearing was any representative of Kaukonahua Ranch. Ranch general manager Mark “Skip” Taylor issued a statement Wednesday promising future engagement with the council, DPP and the community regarding the project. Taylor wrote that the developers hadn’t had the opportunity to “educate the councilmembers” about the project “in the face of this rapidly adopted resolution.”
“We look forward to providing more information to the Honolulu City Council about the agricultural improvements already made and sharing more about how we will continue preserving more than 2,300 acres of the Kaukonahua Valley, and provide the public with unprecedented access to the Ranch for the first time in its history,” Taylor’s statement read in part.
DPP Director Dawn Apuna told the council that DPP is reviewing the 2019 permit and will make a “thorough analysis and decision” within the next few weeks.
The resolution notes that, if DPP nullifies the permit, the developer could return and apply for another conditional use permit.
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