Promised road not yet ready
By Suzanne Roig
Advertiser East Honolulu Writer
HAWAI'I KAI — Floodwater rose waist high during the recent heavy rain in Kamilonui Valley, blocking farmers from leaving via their only route — a one-lane access road that leads through the Mariner's Cove subdivision. It's a road that floods frequently.
A second route was supposed to have been built for use in such emergencies, the farmers say, but it is not ready.
Last year, Schuler Homes promised the Kamilonui Valley Farmers Cooperative that it would create a paved easement through the housing development that would provide access from Hawai'i Kai Drive past the post office. The access road was agreed upon by the farmers and the developer after the city granted approval for the development, as a way to address the farmers' concerns about the effect of the new homes on their farms.
The new paved road will replace a makeshift route that farmers used when the primary access was blocked.
"We were promised an emergency road out of the valley for times such as these," said Gary Weller in an e-mail to The Advertiser. "Instead, a huge pile of rock, dirt and plant debris makes the former escape route completely impassable."
Mike Jones, Schuler Homes Hawai'i president, said he expects the access road to be completed in the next three months. The accessway will be paved and owned by Kamehameha Schools, but accessible to the farmers, Jones said.
"It's not a dedicatable city street," Jones said. "But it's a road for the farmers. It's one of the benefits of the subdivision. Something that wasn't there before the project."
Before the subdivision was built, if farmers needed to get out of the valley and the primary access was blocked, they could drive on a trail that was created over time that led out to the post office side of Hawai'i Kai Drive.
During heavy rain Jan. 2-4, two cars got stuck in waist-deep water and a motorist had to be rescued by firefighters on the only paved road out of the valley, said Katsumi Higa, a Hawai'i Kai farmer since the 1950s and a member of the Kamilonui Farmers Cooperative.
"We couldn't pass over there because it was flooded," Higa said. "We couldn't get through the emergency access" either.
"The road's not done yet."
When the then-undeveloped land was owned by Henry J. Kaiser, the farmers received the assurance that they would have access to city streets when the two parts of Hawai'i Kai Drive were connected. But last year, the O'ahu Metropolitan Planning Organization, a city-state transportation planning agency, tossed out plans to join the two ends from Kanoenoe Street to Kamilonui Place because of community opposition.
The farmers fear that without access they'll be locked in, unable to leave the valley to take their crops to market, which poses a threat to their livelihood.
Thus the emergency accessway takes on added importance.
Schuler is building 58 single-family homes in a development called Leolani.
Homes are selling for upwards of $700,000 on land that abuts some of the farms. The land where the homes are being built was rezoned by the City Council to allow for the housing, over objections from the community.
The project should be completed by the end of the summer, Jones said.
Reach Suzanne Roig at sroig@honoluluadvertiser.com or 395-8831.
