Panel backs zoning for two scrapyards at Puunene sites

The Maui News
Thursday, November 16, 2006
By HARRY EAGAR, Staff Writer

WAILUKU - Although two private businesses now are taking in junked cars and appliances for recycling, the county Department of Public Works and Environmental Management is getting ready to get into the game, too.

On Tuesday, the county department got the unanimous assent of the Maui Planning Commission to rezone 15 acres at the old Puunene airport for a recycling and storage facility.

It will cost $2.25 million to build, including infrastructure, but it is uncertain whether the new administration of Mayor-elect Charmaine Tavares will pursue the effort, which began 2 1/2 years ago when the only private junkyard then operating was closed.

Tavares, who was not available for comment, also will be reworking the department into separate agencies, a Department of Public Works and a Department of Environmental Management. Tavares supported the charter change that was approved by voters Nov. 7 and says she sees the new Department of Environmental Management taking on an expanded role in environmental issues.

Even if the county itself does not choose to get into scrapping cars and white goods, having the rezoned acreage could be valuable, said Tracy Takamine, head of the county Solid Waste Division.

Junk on the side of the road has been both a headache and an eyesore for the last several years. If the present metal recyclers were to close, Takamine said, the proposed facility will give the county a place to handle junked vehicles and other scrap metals.

When there was no permitted scrap metals facility on Maui, the county stored hundreds of junk cars at an old landfill, in violation of environmental regulations, or simply left the derelicts where they had been dumped.

Alternatively, the 15 acres could be used for a materials recovery facility - MRF, or "murf." Whereas junkyards specialize in junked cars, draining fluids and crushing the metal for shipment to foundries, a "murf" would take in all sorts of recyclable opala - paper, glass, metals, plastics - sort it and ship it off.

The 15-acre site also might provide a home to either composting or biodiesel operations, the commission was told.

One speaker advised the county to stay out of the car-scrapping business. Buck Joiner testified that the county facility would have been "a great idea if it had been done three years ago."

Now, he said, it would just create "unfair competition" for the private recyclers: SOS Metals Island Recycling and Kitagawa Towing & Transport.

"The government should not be doing those things which the private sector can do for itself," Joiner said.

"It is not our intent to compete for commercial business," Takamine said.

The private scrapyards can keep their customers, he said. But the county still has to collect cars abandoned by the side of the road and it long has had a policy of collecting used white goods from residences. Public works figured it was cheaper in the long run to provide that as a free service than to retrieve junked refrigerators from gulches and fields.

He said public works still is figuring how much it would cost to run its facility, but that it probably would be cheaper to find a contractor to run the facility on county property.

The $2 million-plus cost to build the facility would get just the pad, drainage and power at the site. Car crushers and other equipment to handle the materials would cost more.

Bruce Mizell, manager at SOS, said the county should have a murf, which would "eliminate problems at the landfill," which has been filling up faster than predicted.

He suggested that both Maui EKO Compost and Pacific Biodiesel need "a better choice" than the spaces they are using at Central Maui Landfill.

The 15 acres the county wants to rezone is part of 223 acres that the state owned but turned over to the county by governor's executive order. The county long has designated the big lot Project District 10, but it has never implemented the zoning that a project district entails.

So it requires a state Land Use Commission boundary amendment from agriculture to urban and rezoning to M2 Heavy Industrial for the 15-acre lot. The County Council can make the decision on a recommendation from the planning commission, which voted unanimously to recommend the changes.

The chairman of the commission usually does not vote unless his vote is needed to break an impasse, so Chairman Wayne Hedani did not vote. But he indicated some doubt about the consequences of going ahead.

"It will be interesting to see if it will be complementary (to the private operations) as opposed to just putting them out of business," he said.

The commission also voted to recommend rezoning of three parcels at Central Maui Baseyard from M1 Light Industrial to M2 Heavy Industrial. One of the lots is used by SOS.

The baseyard has been used for a variety of industrial uses and has more than 100 tenants.

SOS has been operating under a conditional use permit, but Earl Stoner of baseyard operator S&F Land said it would be better to have the proper zoning for the use. Besides, there is hardly any M2 land open on Maui, while there is good demand, he said.

Usually, the Planning Department includes a condition in industrial zoning to prevent retailers or restaurants from opening. Before that condition became standard, many lots of the Kahului Light Industrial Park ended up in commercial uses, to the dismay of industrial operations, which always have been short of space.

In the case of Stoner's operation, however, Planning Director Mike Foley asked the commission to make an exception.

With so many people working at the baseyard, he said, there should be enough demand to support a small snack shop serving breakfast and lunch.

That would help keep traffic off Mokulele Highway. So the department crafted a condition to allow a small snack shop, so situated as not to attract passers-by but just to serve the baseyard denizens.

Stoner said a restaurant could not be built for a while, as a restaurant would require sewage-handling systems the baseyard does not have.

But he said he thought he could encourage a lunch wagon to set up.

The commission voted unanimously to recommend rezoning for slightly less than 10 acres of the 58-acre baseyard to M2.