Coco Palms permits deferred

Editor’s note: This is the first of two stories on the ongoing Kaua‘i Planning Commission deliberation over an application for permits necessary to rebuild the Coco Palms Resort.

LIHU‘E — Residents identifying themselves as Kanaka Maoli, the indigenous people of Hawai‘i, urged the Kaua‘i County Planning Commission Tuesday not to approve the restoration of the old Coco Palms Resort.

Rupert Rowe, Nani Rogers and Mark Boiser said approval of the project will deprive Kanaka access to open space, and will result in the disturbance of burials and degradation of lands on which the resort currently sits.

“This development is 80 years down the road, and it should stay there,” Rowe said during a meeting of the commission at the Lihu‘e Civic Center. “Let the people of this island enjoy the open scenery, not people coming here and altering the lives of our community.”

The trio lodged their opposition even though the developer, Coco Palms LLC, submitted revisions to its plans to reduce the density of the proposed restoration project.

In a letter to the chairperson of the commission, Rodney Funakoshi, a project manager for Coco Palms LLC., proposed building one-story cottages along the lagoons, and reducing the height and density of the buildings in the area from that of three-and-four story buildings.

Funakoshi also said plans call for the Queens Audience Hall to be replaced by a four-story building containing hotel rooms, a restaurant and meeting rooms.

He also said the plans call for reducing the lot coverage of the hotel project from 54 percent to 51.9 percent, and building an “open-air” pedestrian walkway from the hotel over Kuhio Highway to the Seashell Restaurant and Wailua Beach, and other road improvements to help with traffic circulation around the hotel.

Other revisions call for observing a 50-foot setback for hotel buildings located immediately mauka of Kuhio Highway and building 104 hotel units and 200 condominium units, an entrance and exit to the project from Kuhio Highway, and a separate building to house an elevator and stairway to connect to the pedestrian walkway on the mauka side of Kuhio Highway.

Plans call for the Seashell Restaurant operators to serve their last meal at 10 p.m.

The owners originally envisioned a project comprising 103 hotel suites and 200 multi-family residential condominium units, retail shops, a spa, a museum, restaurants, office space, meeting rooms, and 715 parking stalls.

Because commission members received the proposed revisions just a few days ago, they said they wanted more time to review them.

After getting approval to do that from the leaders with the Coco Palms LLC, including Richard Weiser, a managing member of the group, commissioners decided to take up the permit requests from the developer at their next meeting, on Tuesday, Jan. 25.

The developer is seeking a Special Management Area (SMA) Use permit, a project development use permit, a use permit, a variance permit, and a Class IV Zoning Permit.

Following the commission meeting, Weiser said the 33-acre hotel site is still owned by Wailua Associates, and that Coco Palms LLC will not buy the hotel until the SMA permit can be secured.

Of the more than 20 people who signed up to speak, most spoke in favor of the commission granting the permits.

They said the project would give an economic boost to Kaua‘i’s economy, create jobs, and restore and reopen a hotel that was the flagship hotel on Kaua‘i in the 1950s and 1960s.

During that time, the hotel increased in size, and rose to prominence under the leadership of the late Grace and Lyle Guslander.

The hotel also was the site for the partial filming of Elvis Presley’s 1961 movie “Blue Hawaii.”

The hotel was damaged by Hurricane ‘Iniki in 1992, and has been closed since.

If the restoration or rehabilitation is approved, the old Coco Palms hotel would be with the Poipu Beach Hotel the last hurricane-damaged hotels to be repaired and reopened.

Rowe said Weiser and his group should abandon the hotel plans, and let the hotel, which sits vacant and in disrepair due to hurricane damage, remain a part of Kaua‘i’s past.

Rowe said Presley had dinner at the hotel, and was entertained by longtime Kaua‘i musician, songwriter and singer Larry Rivera.

“But as an entertainer, the word of ‘aloha’ means ‘Aloha ‘Oe’ (a song created by Queen Lili‘uokalani to mark the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy in 1893). Let it be gone,” he said.

“It (the hotel) is history,” Rowe said. “Let’s preserve the future by keeping the space open, so that the future will have an opportunity.”

Rowe said he is against the development even though his father and other relatives worked at the old hotel.

The hotel grounds should be returned to nature because they are located next to a “sacred river (Wailua River) that runs up to the mountains, for Kane (an Hawaiian god),” Rowe said.

Rogers said that while she appreciate comments from critics and supporters of the project, including those from former hotel employees, she said the hotel plans are still not acceptable to her even though they have been revised.

“Anything tweaked in the plans is still not acceptable, for so many reasons that have not been resolved yet,” Rogers said.

She said that Kaua‘i is being overrun by “corporate America” and an “economic globalization” that is based on greed.

Kaua‘i is losing its economic sovereignty through the selling of land to developers that are not from Hawai‘i, she said.

“Kaua‘i will no longer belong to us, to have economic growth lines. It will belong to foreigners, people not even from here,” Rogers said. Boiser echoed that sentiment.

Cheryl Lovell-Obatake scolded commissioners for taking additional testimony for and against the project, even though the body had closed a public hearing late last year.

“I believe this is all out of context, with the previous speakers providing testimony,” she said.

Lovell-Obatake, a former head of the Island Burial Council, Islands of Kaua‘i and Ni‘ihau, had issues with whether the developer had reinternment plans for burials that could be found during the reconstruction work.

In the past, county and state officials have required developers to follow a process for the proper reburying of finds that are unearthed.

Residents who supported the hotel restoration plan complimented Weiser for being “culturally sensitive.”

Mary Daubert, a Kukui Grove Center executive, said Weiser and others connected with the hotel rehabilitation plan have “demonstrated they are sensitive to the needs of the community.”

Representatives for the developer have offered to speak with residents about the project, and have provided detailed information on it, Daubert said.

Weiser said in the past week, he has spoken with representatives from three powerful Hawaiian groups that represent thousands of Hawaiians across the state — Alu Like, Kamehameha Schools and the state Office of Hawaiian Affairs.

Their discussions, Weiser said, revolved around the possibility of establishing a cultural center on the grounds of the Coco Palms. “I have not asked to do this. I believe it is the right thing to do,” Weiser said.

Weiser said he also is looking at creating a “cultural committee to help us with cultural concerns.” “We think, again, that it is very, very important to do what we are trying to do,” he said.

Weiser also said he reached a written agreement two months ago with Avery Youn, a Kaua‘i architect of Hawaiian descent, to allow Hawaiians, the public and future hotel guests to use the lagoons on the hotel grounds, and 16 acres at the hotel site.

Wailua Associates leases 16 acres from the state, and owns another 17 acres that make up the Coco Palms grounds.

Weiser said he is proposing that the lagoons be nominated for placement onto the federal and state historic registers.

These folks voiced their support for the restoration of the hotel:

• Ilima Rivera, an entertainer and daughter of Larry Rivera. “I fully support what my father, Larry Rivera, has spoken today.” Rivera voiced his support for the plans as well;

• Daubert, who said, “I was born and raised on Kaua‘i, and experienced first-hand the incredible economic impact that the resort had on the island;”

• Dr. Kani Blackwell, an educator for the University of Hawai‘i’s teacher education program on Kaua‘i. She said she has sat in on commission meetings on the project and has watched televised meetings, and was impressed that the commissioners “have listened, and the developer has listened.” Blackwell said she is willing to serve on the cultural committee if necessary;

• William Raleigh. He said he was “struck by Weiser’s passion to restore the grandeur of the Coco Palms property” as close to what the hotel was in its glory days. The project has been “essentially a derelict property for 12 years, and its unimproved state will continue to deteriorate further and become a continual blight to the immediate local community and to the island of Kaua‘i,” he said. Weiser and his group provide a way to “bring this incredible asset back to life,” Raleigh said. “Mr. Weiser has the integrity to make sure this is accomplished, and is done right,” Raleigh said.

Lester Chang, staff writer, may be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 225) or lchang@pulitzer.net.