Developer drops Nu'uanu plan
By James Gonser
Advertiser Urban Honolulu Writer
A developer has backed away from plans to build houses on the steep slopes above homes in the Dowsett Highlands area, but residents who opposed the project and said it would heighten the risk of rockslides are not claiming victory yet.
Members of the Nu'uanu Valley Association say new protections are needed to prevent construction in areas that could send boulders crashing down onto existing homes — not only in Nu'uanu but across the state — and though their immediate concern has passed, they plan to pursue efforts to have new laws enacted.
"It's the bigger issue that is not going to go away," said Nu'uanu resident Barbara Perrine Chu. "We are going to see if we can help create some protective laws. We need these buffer zones between rockfall areas and homes. This way of building and mopping it up later has got to change."
Developer Jon Gomes had planned to pay about $6 million to purchase a 50-acre parcel along a half-mile stretch on the east side of the valley above existing homes from Ragsdale Drive to Kamuela Place.
Gomes expected to subdivide the property into 15 lots ranging in size from one to 11 acres and resell them to individual buyers. Even though the property was in escrow, the deal with property owner Dowsett Highlands Trust fell through this week.
"We just couldn't come to terms on when and how to close," Gomes said. "I never really met with the residents' group, but I think we would have been able to address the concerns of the boulders. Every project nowadays has to do boulder remediation. We would have dealt with it."
But his plan came against a backdrop of heightened concern over rockslides.
Last year, a boulder crashed down a mountainside and into a home in Nu'uanu, killing 26-year-old Dara Rei Onishi as she slept. The tragedy occurred just a half-mile from the property planned for development and called attention to the danger of building close to Hawai'i's ridges and mountains.
Since then, rockfalls across O'ahu have damaged cars and property and have prompted builders and the state to take extraordinary measures to assure safety, including road closures and evacuations.
Residential zoning for the steep parcel was approved decades ago, and the Nu'uanu homeowners said it had since become clear that building homes there clearly is inappropriate.
The 200-member group was concerned that rockfalls could be set off by construction or its aftereffects, and said the land should be set aside as a buffer zone.
Now they would like to see the property rezoned to preservation land before another potential buyer shows interest, and are asking lawmakers to require that a risk assessment be done by developers before construction on or adjacent to any steep property that increases the risk of rockslides.
State Rep. Sylvia Luke, D-26th (Punchbowl, Pacific Heights, Nu'uanu Valley), and City Councilman Rod Tam have been meeting with the residents and are considering introducing legislation that would create a buffer area on hillsides.
Patrick Onishi, Dara's father, said laws need to be created so that people can have some assurance that their lives and their homes are being protected.
"It wasn't until my own personal experience that it struck me as to the kinds of hazards that exist when there is not a little bit more vigilance in the way we implement land uses," said Onishi, a former city planning director. "In many areas, the natural processes cause these types of hazardous conditions to occur. My personal interest right now is trying to see whether laws can be more clear from the standpoint of (the) duty of the landowners."
Reach James Gonser at jgonser@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2431.
