The landowner needs the state Land Use Commission to reclassify 613 acres on Molokai's western slopes above Laau from agricultural to rural use to develop 200, 2-acre lots for luxury homes. According to the draft environmental review, the developed Laau Point community would cover 1,432 acres.

Developers have said the homes will help finance a number of other commercial and community investments on what's now mostly a rural island.

Molokai Properties, which owns Molokai Ranch and tens of thousands of acres of undeveloped land, prepared a second draft environmental impact statement after it became apparent in November that the state land use panel was not going to approve the first environmental study following nearly two days of often-contentious public hearings in Hoolehua.

Critics came out in droves, calling the draft environmental study superficial, inadequate and old.

John Sabas, Molokai Properties general manager for community affairs, said the landowner was prepared to respond to any questions but was never given the chance. He also reasserted that the developer is making a generous offer to the people of Molokai and called the deal a "no-brainer."

The new draft environmental impact study is a nearly 1,600-page document with its supporting materials. Copies of the document were sent to public libraries, and some people were mailed it in a CD-ROM format.

The deadline for public comments is Feb. 22.

DeGray Vanderbilt, Molokai Planning Commission chairman, said he was disappointed the revised draft environmental impact statement wasn't more broadly distributed in a hard-copy format.

"We'll see what happens," he said. "There may be some people asking for a time extension for the community. ... Forty-five days isn't a lot of time to get through all this."

He also said he wished the developer would have highlighted changes made in the document.

When faced with denial of their development plan by the Land Use Commission, Molokai Properties officials withdrew the first draft environmental study and pledged to resubmit it.

An outspoken critic of the proposal is Karen Holt, executive director of the Molokai Community Service Council. She said she hadn't seen the document as of last week. It was released Jan. 7.

"I would reserve judgment until I have time to look at it, but I would say that a little over a month and a half since the hearing is a pretty short period of time to adequately address all the concerns raised by the hundreds of people who testified," she said.

Critics contend that by submitting the revised environmental study after only a half-dozen weeks, the developer showed it was making only superficial changes to the document.

It was unclear when the Land Use Commission would schedule another hearing and vote on whether to accept the new draft environmental study. The commission's former executive officer, Anthony Ching, left for another job in December.

Sabas said Molokai Properties will request a hearing immediately after the comment period ends. The last time around, it took about nine months from when the public-comment period closed to when the commission held its hearings.

Both sides argue that their positions will preserve Molokai's rural character and native culture.

But the well-organized Save Laau group and its supporters say the project will sully an area considered sacred.

The developers say the land will remain open for traditional subsistence practices and that unchecked development is already occurring on "the last Hawaiian island."

Supporters say the proposed development is an unprecedented opportunity to return native lands and in the meantime pump millions of dollars into the economy in the form of construction and resort jobs.

In addition to building multimillion-dollar homes at Laau Point, Molokai Properties wants to invest $35 million to restore and reopen the Kaluakoi Hotel.

But the developer's plans hit another snag last month when the Hawaii Supreme Court halted the company's application for water for the hotel.

The court found that the predecessor company, Kukui (Molokai) Inc., was late in submitting a permit application, not only for the hotel but for other Molokai Ranch uses in west Molokai. But the environmental impact statement anticipated the problem and stated that if a compromise can't be reached with the state, Molokai Properties would build a pipeline to transport water from a large well to the development.

The Laau proposal was the result of 150 public meetings involving 1,000 of the island's roughly 7,000 permanent residents over the past four years. The result was the Community-Based Master Land Use Plan for Molokai Ranch's 60,000 acres.

The biggest piece of Molokai Properties' master plan, which was produced in cooperation with the federally funded Molokai Enterprise Community organization, would forever set aside more than 55,000 acres of ranch land in a trust for conservation and agricultural easements.

In November, commissioners moved to reject the first draft environmental impact statement, saying they considered it inadequate on water treatment, water transmission, segmentation of residential lots, electricity issues and potential environmental hazards to Hawaiian monk seals. The commission's staff issued a report that supported the commissioners' position.

"The first go around that EIS was sound. It was good, but we didn't get a chance to present our side, and there were lots of unfounded claims being made," Sabas said.

Sabas said Molokai Properties did add information and addressed comments from commissioners and the public in the revised environmental study. There's more on how the land trust will be organized and how the property owner plans to meet the project's electrical needs, he said. In all, another 300 pages' worth of material was added, he said.

Molokai Properties also made a concentrated effort this time around to present the environmental study's information in more readable format that clearly drives home its positions. For instance, the new document spells out that the developers will build 200 homes, which was a concern raised by the Molokai Planning Commission.

In the revision, the landowner also states that it expects to sell the Laau lots for an estimated $193 million and oceanfront lots would go for $1.45 million. The company, which is owned by Hong Kong-based GuocoLeisure Ltd., estimates that Laau will add 174 permanent residents to Molokai and up to 325 seasonal residents.

"If you take away the hype and the emotions and if you take time to read everything, your questions will be answered," Sabas said. "We're going to repeat it until people get the message."

The draft environmental impact statement also has a section on alternatives to the plan, nearly all of which Molokai Properties panned. Those ideas include relocating the project mauka of Laau Point, building a resort and condominiums, constructing an electric wind farm, selling the ranch to local nonprofits and community activists for conservation, and selling off the ranch land piecemeal.

The last alternative remains the most likely that the landowner would pursue — if all else fails, Sabas said.

PUBLIC COMMENTARY

Feb. 22 is the deadline for public comments on a draft environmental impact statement on the proposed Laau Point development.

Send comments to Molokai Properties Ltd., 745 Fort Street Mall, Suite 600, Honolulu 96813.

Copies also should be sent to the state Land Use Commission, P.O. Box 2359, Honolulu 96804; and the state Office of Environmental Quality Control, 235 S. Beretania St., Suite 702, Honolulu 96813.