Kawai Nui Marsh project moved
By Eloise Aguiar
Advertiser Windward Bureau
KAILUA — Bowing to the wishes of the community, the state and city have agreed to use another site for a proposed state land department maintenance facility, moving it from Kawai Nui Marsh to the county maintenance yard across the street on Kapa'a Quarry Road.
The decision follows opposition from residents and Hawai'i Thousand Friends, the Kailua Neighborhood Board and the Kawai Nui Heritage Foundation, at a public hearing early this year, said Donna Wong, executive director of Hawai'i Thousand Friends.
"(We) said no to a big, huge massive structure on the marsh," Wong said. "You can't try to enhance, protect and preserve something if you keep building on it."
Similar objections could arise in opposition to a state Department of Land and Natural Resources request for additional infrastructure in the marsh. That request surfaced at a City Council Zoning Committee meeting last week on a special management permit for a wildlife restoration project.
While the permit proposal specifically omitted the construction of any structures associated with the maintenance facility, Councilman John Henry Felix said the permit decision was deferred because DLNR requested "a volunteer center, holding pens for animals deemed ill and a tool shed," which DLNR considered necessary to maintain the marsh.
"There were a number of issues that had not been thoroughly addressed in the past, and we want to do it right," said Felix.
Action on the permit was deferred until decision-making at 10:30 a.m. Oct. 23 in the Honolulu Hale Committee Meeting Room.
Wong credited the city Department of Planning and Permitting for deciding that such a maintenance facility would not be compatible with a model airplane field next to it. The community suggested that the state build its facility across the street at the city maintenance yard, she said.
The DLNR proposed constructing a 2,500-square-foot building, a 2,000-square-foot office, seven storage containers and a parking lot on the makai side of Kapa'a Quarry Road next to the airplane field.
The projects are part of the Kawai Nui Marsh Management Plan, which includes restoration of shallow mudflat ponds for wildlife and stream-bank habitats.
The planning department said the DLNR could use about half an acre near the Kapa'a Transfer Station to build its facility.
The planning department accomplished this by modifying a special management area permit for the Kapa'a Transfer Station to include the structures. No hearing was necessary and everything was done administratively.
DLNR spokeswoman Deborah Ward said the state has no objections against the new location and is working with the city.
Reach Eloise Aguiar at eaguiar@honoluluadvertiser.com or 234-5266.
