Litany of injustices
An Aug. 16, 2020, article in The Garden Island quoted the project architect for Coco Palms hotel development, Ron Agor: “The concrete in the surviving shells of what were once the hotel’s main buildings is so severely deteriorated that it may be necessary to cut off the framing of all of the third floors.”
Following up, at an August 2022 Planning Commission meeting, the hotel’s developers promised they would be demolishing the old hotel structure “within six months”.
Now in a Feb 1, 2023, TGI article, “Kaua‘i Planning Commission meeting sparks Coco Palms revelations,” Agor is reported to have testified that developers have reversed course and are now pursuing renovation rather than demolition of structures closest to the highway.
“After looking into it, we found that the structure is non conforming and if we were to take it down we wouldn’t be able to rebuild it,” he said.
So the developers will move forward with a hotel intended to accommodate hundreds of guests knowing the supporting structure through decades of seaside exposure has experienced severe spalling of concrete and rusting metal.
Reef Capital, the developers, should have responded to Mr Agor’s finding by retaining forensic structural engineers to analyze the integrity of the old hotel’s basic structure and worthiness to support a new hotel for another 50 years of the hotel’s lifetime. But they didn’t. And no government agency has come forward to make them.
The state Board of Land and Natural Resources, the county Planning Department, Building Division of the Department of Public Works, and Planning Commission could have acted. Instead, they have all been bystanders at best, abetting the colonialist tradition of exploiting Kaua‘i’s natural resources for profits for wealthy investors at the expense of preserving local culture and lifestyle.
Concern for the proposed building’s integrity is only a subset in the litany of injustices Wailaunuiaho‘ano will experience if this project succeeds. It is an object lesson of government over time bending to the will of the development industry.
Kip Goodwin, Kapa‘a
