LIHU’E — Former Kaua’i County Councilman Jesse Fukushima yesterday asked a council committee to change the county’s comprehensive zoning ordinance to let residents decide whether a drug rehabilitation center will be put through the government-approval process.
Fukushima sought the change because of a proposal by proponents of the HanaMana Healing Center to convert the former Wong’s Care Home at the end of Kawaihau Road in Kapa’a into a drug-treatment and rehabilitation center.
The former care home is located near 40 households, including Fukushima’s. The residents have fretted about runaway situations and security concerns connected with the proposed project.
Supporters of the project said the fears are unfounded, and that security concerns will be addressed.
Fukushima made his request at yesterday’s meeting of the council’s Planning Committee at the historic County Building here.
A current notification law requires developers to notify people who live within 300 feet of a proposed project.
Fukushima said the HanaMana project is different because if approved, it would be put in an agricultural-open area near homes.
In such areas, homes are spread farther apart, and current notification laws won’t be effective, hence the need to modify them, councilmembers Joe Munechika and Jay Furfaro said.
In his request to the council committee, Fukushima proposed:
- 85 percent of all property owners who live in an agricultural or open-zone district and are within 3,000 feet of a proposed project be notified of a project;
- 75 percent of those who live within 1,000 feet of the proposed project approve the project before it can be sent to the Kaua’i County Planning Department and Kaua’i County Planning Commission.
Care facilities in areas with hospitals would be exempt, Fukushima said.
Council vice chairman James Tokioka said he would consider Fukushima’s first request, but cast doubt over whether the second request would move forward.
Tokioka said projects such as the HanaMana Healing Center should be allowed to go through the government process, and that would not happen if Fukushima’s second request took effect.
“Not only do people have to be notified, they have to approve it before it goes to the Planning Department and commission,” Tokioka said. “And that particular part there for me, Mr. Fukushima, would be a little difficult, because the reason we want them to get notified is so they can go through the process.”
Tokioka said, “I don’t know if I would feel comfortable stopping that process.”
Councilwoman JoAnn Yukimura voiced similar concerns, noting that part of Fukushima’s proposal “is not just a notification proposal. This is actually a requirement of approval.”
The matter has been sent to the county Planning Department for review.
In presenting the proposals, Fukushima said he was representing the Kapahi Homesteads Community Association.
He said he may be overzealous, but only because the proponents of the HanaMana Healing Center didn’t properly notify the community about their project last year.
Residents only found out about the project after reading an article in The Garden Island, Fukushima said.
Fukushima also noted the first public hearing was rescheduled last year by the county Planning Commission after the proponents of the center didn’t properly notify neighbors.
Yukimura said it appeared the notification process “didn’t work; it wasn’t done.”
Of Fukushima’s requests, Hans Tangelder, executive director of the HanaMana Healing Center, said, “I don’t think it will affect us much because we are pretty much through the process.”
Tangelder said he has fielded complaints about his project, and that safety concerns will be adequately addressed, including parking, fencing and safety.
The county Planning Commission will resume a public hearing on Tuesday, Feb. 10 at the Lihu’e Civic Center on the HanaMana Center application for county permits necessary to operate the facility.
Staff Writer Lester Chang may be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 225) or mailto:lchang@pulitzer.net.
