Hawai'i Kai farmers still awaiting road
By Suzanne Roig
Advertiser East Honolulu Writer
HAWAI'I KAI — A road leading to the dozen or so farms in the Kamilonui Farmer's Cooperative was supposed to be temporary, a way to allow farmers to get to their land behind Mariner's Cove.
That was 30 years ago, and today the road is still the only access into the valley.
During heavy rains it washes out, and the Hawai'i Kai Marina overflows its banks into the spillway and onto the road. Recently, the road had 3 inches of standing water from heavy rains. Several years ago, during a particularly wet period, boats were needed to get farmers out of the valley.
It's a situation the farmers have learned to live with, but always believed would be resolved once the city connected the two parts of Hawai'i Kai Drive. They say developer Henry J. Kaiser assured them that would happen.
Now, with the connection apparently no longer under consideration and the area poised for development, the farmers are concerned that they could be left without access to the main roads. That would threaten their livelihood, they say.
"Kaiser, when he developed this area for us, he promised to open Hawai'i Kai Drive," said Katsumi Higa, a Hawai'i Kai farmer since the 1950s. "We even deposited some money for the road. But it never got built, and now the community and the city don't want to build it."
Late last year, the O'ahu Metropolitan Planning Organization, a city-state transportation planning agency, tossed out plans to join the two ends of Hawai'i Kai Drive from Kanoenoe Street to Kamilonui Place because the community consistently opposed it.
Since farmers first voiced their concerns to the City Council more than a year ago, some progress has been made. But the farmers aren't satisfied.
They have met with developer Bob Gerell, City Councilman John Henry Felix and mayor's representative Manny Menendez, executive director of the city's Office of Economic Development.
"It's an issue that needs all the parties at the table," Menendez said. "The emergency-access part has been resolved. We have made progress, but it's not the ultimate solution that the farmers want."
The developer agreed verbally at the meeting to sign over to the city an unpaved easement through his housing development, which will be accessed from Hawai'i Kai Drive past the post office.
However, the farmers — who have been forced out by development once before — insist that a verbal promise from the city and the developer is not sufficient, and they won't rest until they have a definitive agreement.
"I want something in writing," Higa said. "We're not going to be locked in."
To get out of their valley and onto Lunalilo Home Road, a main route out of Hawai'i Kai, the farmers drive on a one-lane access road that was built over a storm drain and through the Mariner's Cove subdivision.
Within five years they will be sandwiched between a cemetery to the east and a housing development to the west. The cemetery will encompass a good portion of the quarter-mile access road, Higa said.
"We need ingress and egress from the west end (of the valley)," said Higa. "We have no access unless we go through the subdivision."
The farmers lease their land from Kamehameha Schools and have 24 years left on the lease.
Many of the farmers, who have have been there for two generations, grow vegetables or nursery plants. Years ago, development of Hawai'i Kai had forced many from their land along Lunalilo Home Road.
It's this history that keeps them coming to public meetings, reminding developers and lawmakers that they pay taxes, too, Higa said.
The farmers want to be sure that their voices are heard, he said.
Reach Suzanne Roig at sroig@honoluluadvertiser.com or 395-8831.
