Planning commission OK's Dowling's Keaka project

The Maui News
Saturday, November 18, 2006
By HARRY EAGAR, Staff Writer

WAILUKU - To Maui planning commissioner Johanna Amorin, Everett Dowling's Keaka condominium project at Makena is "a great project."

To planning commissioner Diane Shepherd, it's a "horrible, horrible" project.

The pros outnumbered the cons 5-2 when the commission voted Tuesday on a special management area permit and special accessory use permit for the $220 million project down the coastline from the Maui Prince Hotel.

Land use there has been contentious for a long time. The 14-acre site long has been zoned for a hotel. Dowling plans a 71-unit condominium in 13 buildings ranging from one to four stories, plus a recreation building.

There are two important ancient sites: a burial and a koa (fishing shrine). Both are to be preserved and protected by a buffer zone.

Consultant Mich Hirano said the development will introduce advanced concepts in drainage and "green" development never seen on Maui before.

After questions were raised earlier, a six-stage drainage system was designed to intercept storm water from mauka and filter it twice before releasing it into a retention basin. By that time, Hirano said, 90 percent of pollutants would have been removed.

The runoff from the lot will be only a little more than half the runoff from its undeveloped state.

The reef offshore was described by Robert "Snorkel Bob" Wintner as one of the least degraded around. He said that although his business is snorkel tours, there is no doubt snorkeling adversely affects reefs; so he advocates making some reefs no-go zones.

He assessed the reef off Maluaka Point and Oneuli Beach, the north end of Makena Beach State Park, as among the best.

Runoff, including nutrients, can affect reefs, although environmental consultant Robin Knox, testifying as a private individual, said evidence is unsettled whether the effect is good or bad.

Jennifer Stites explained how this will be the first LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified condominium project in Hawaii.

She said the project will obtain one-eighth of its electricity from photovoltaic solar cells. Overall, it will consume 32 percent less electricity, 20 percent less domestic water and 50 percent less irrigation water than a conventional design, she said.

Asked by commissioner John Guard IV if such concepts couldn't be used in affordable housing - such as the Waiehu Kou houses Dowling is developing for the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands - Dowling said he thought that within five years, they can be.

So far, however, they are still an extra cost, hard to justify when trying to keep the delivered price of a house as low as possible.

Guard joined Shepherd in voting against the project. The specific reason he gave for his vote was that the community plan called for low-rise development "near" the shore.

He said he needed somebody to define "near" for him, but that since the project is makai of Makena-Keoneoio Road, that seemed near enough to him.

He didn't like the concept of Keaka much, with its gates and its large apartments that are expected to be occupied part time by wealthy buyers.

"Do they need 5,000-square-foot penthouses?" he asked. "The idea of coming to Maui should be to be outside."

Shepherd, a consistent opponent of luxury housing, acknowledged the green intentions and said her objection was "where you want to put it. Where else can you put it?"

She added, "You paid $11 million."

Dowling replied, "Thirty-five million."

Besides the drainage system, off-site improvements in the Keaka development include extending the King's Trail south, in the same fashion as the portion passing along the coastline in front of the Maui Prince, extending a 12-inch waterline and adding 20 parking stalls to the 30 public spaces already available to beachgoers.

(read the original article here)