Big Island to get 400 homestead lots
Advertiser Staff
WAIMEA, Hawai'i — The Department of Hawaiian Home Lands is planning a 265-acre project on the Big Island between Waimea and Kawaihae that would include 400 homestead lots as well as commercial and industrial uses.
It has submitted an environmental impact statement preparation notice to the state Office of Environmental Quality Control for the Lalamilo development in Waiaka, near the Hawai'i Preparatory Academy.
The land was recently acquired from the state as part of a settlement to restore the Hawaiian Home Lands Trust. The lots would be awarded to Native Hawaiian beneficiaries who haved indicated a preference to live in North Hawai'i.
Ben Henderson of the DHHL said the area has been long considered for potential development. The project is expected to be paid for using income from other DHHL properties, including the Prince Kuhio Plaza shopping center in Hilo, which returns more than $1 million a year, and industrial leases in Hilo, he said. Officials were unable to provide a cost estimate for the project.
Approximately half the homes would be built by developers, the other half by owner-builders or through self-help housing programs, according to the notice submitted to the OEQC. The minimum lot size would be 10,000 square feet.
To pay for for homestead development, about 33 acres would be made available eventually for commercial and light-industrial leases.
The project is planned in three phases, with residential lots constructed in the first two phases, between 2002 and 2005. The commercial-industrial uses would occur in phase three, sometime after 2006, as the market demands, the notice said.
The project is part of a larger tract of land that contained unexploded ordnance from military training in the 1940s. The Army Corps of Engineers is investigating how to deal with any remaining ordnance there.
Jan. 22 is the deadline for the first round of public comments on the proposed development. Comments should be sent to the DHHL at 1099 Alakea St., 12th Floor, Honolulu 96813.
