honoluluadvertiser.com

Sponsored by:

Comment, blog & share photos

Log in | Become a member
The Honolulu Advertiser

Posted at 11:33 a.m., Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Public reviews plan to develop Moloka'i's La'au Point

Advertiser Staff

Molokai Ranch Ltd. said it received and is reviewing about 125 written comments on its plan to develop luxury home lots at La'au Point.

The company said it will respond to all the comments, which it will use to help it refine its plan.

"We may not be able to make all the changes being requested, but we will be doing our best," said John Sabas, Molokai Ranch community affairs general manager.

Molokai Ranch received the comments as part of a draft environmental impact statement process that invited public comments that were due Feb. 23.

Some of the comments, which included 26 from government agencies and 55 from individuals on Moloka'i, pertained to issues such as shoreline access, impacts on subsistence practices of residents, water, and sediment caused by run-off.

The development plan, which includes 200 one-acre residential lots, has split the Moloka'i community.

Some residents say the project will encroach on traditional fishing grounds, and change the island's way of life by attracting outside investors and raising land values that make homes less affordable to more long-time residents.

Others support the plan because of project trade-offs that include reopening the Kaluakoi Hotel and preserving 50,000 acres of Moloka'i Ranch land by giving the land or perpetual restrictive easements on the land to a community trust.

Copies of the environmental statement can be reviewed at the Moloka'i public library, the Molokai Ranch office in Maunaloa, the Office of Hawaiian Affairs office in Kalamaula and on the internet at luc.state.hi.us/dockets/a06764molokai/a06764deis.pdf .