ANAHOLA — Gov. Linda Lingle, Mayor Bryan Baptiste, state and county government leaders and Hawaiians gathered at a groundbreaking ceremony yesterday for the first phase of Pi‘ilani Mai Ke Kai residential project in Anahola — the first large project to
ANAHOLA — Gov. Linda Lingle, Mayor Bryan Baptiste, state and county government leaders and Hawaiians gathered at a groundbreaking ceremony yesterday for the first phase of Pi‘ilani Mai Ke Kai residential project in Anahola — the first large project to be developed in the largest Hawaiian community on Kaua‘i in a decade.
More Hawaiian families will be able to move into homes at prices they can afford as the 181-lot project is built over the next five years, Micah Kane, chairman of the Hawaiian Homes Commission, said before the ceremony at the project site above Anahola Bay.
“We are able to help families who really wouldn’t be able to buy a home in today’s market,” Kane said. “I think it is going to have a great impact on relieving some of the pressure on Kaua‘i’ County’s affordable housing areas.”
Increasing the number of affordable housing units on Kaua‘i will keep down the home sale prices and enable more moderate-income islanders to get into homes, county officials said.
Yesterday’s ceremony marked the start of infrastructure improvements for 80 lots.
Delta Construction Corp., which is based in Honolulu, won a $7.8 million contract for work that will include the grading of land, the building of roadways and highway improvements and the development of electrical, water, drainage and sewer systems.
Akinaka & Associates has been hired as the engineering consultant for the project.
Infrastructure work for the second phase — 55 lots — is scheduled to start in early 2007. Similar work on the third phase — 46 lots — is scheduled to start in early 2008.
While the infrastructure for all three phases will be developed at more than $20 million, the cost of building the homes has not been determined yet because that part of the project is still in the planning stages, DHHL officials said. The homes will be in the affordable range though, because the homes are geared for economically challenged home buyers or builders.
Once the infrastructure improvements are completed, DHHL officials will meet with families to discuss their finances and other building preferences and design the homes.
“Before a program like this, we would try to fit our families into a certain type of home,” Kane said. “We are trying to do the complete opposite now.”
Agnes Chung, an 84-year resident of Anahola, was among 181 DHHL beneficiaries to win leases earlier this year.
She said she has been waiting for a lease for 48 years and is ready to start building a home on her leased lot when it is designated by DHHL.
“I am happy,” she said as she sat with her hanai daughter, Cynthia Haumea, in a chair under a tarp at the ceremony.
Lingle said helping DHHL provide housing for its beneficiaries has been a top priority of her administration, and the Anahola project is concrete evidence of her commitment.
She said when Hawai‘i became a state in 1959, the state government took on obligations, and one was to carry on the intent of the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act, which set aside hundreds of thousands acres in Hawai‘i for housing opportunities for Hawaiians.
“And that is why the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, under our administration, doesn’t operate in isolation,” she said. “They are teamed up with the (state) Department of Transportation. They are teamed up with budget and finance to make sure they get any help they want.”
Lingle said all state departments know they have an obligation to help the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands achieve its goals.
State Department of Transportation deputy director Brennon Morioka attended the ceremony to show his support for the project.
For the Anahola project, the DOT Highways Division will review DHHL’s proposal for a water line under the state highway to serve the homes.
Kane also said the strong working relationship between the administrations of Lingle and Baptiste has expedited the project.
Baptiste said the cooperation will mean Hawaiians who have been waiting for decades to move onto the land now have that chance within their grasp.
“Never in the history of the Hawaiian Homes has so much happened in such a short period of time,” Baptiste said.
Kaua‘i County Councilwoman Shaylene Iseri-Carvalho, who lives in Anahola, said the coming together of the project is historic and will elevate the quality of life for Hawaiians in Anahola.
“The Hawaiian community, they are very pleased about what has happened,” she said.” And they are looking for more.”
And that will happen because DHHL will move forward on the other phases of the Anahola project, Baptiste said to the audience.
“These guys aren’t going to give up till their last day in office four-and-a-half years from now, said Baptiste, referring to the time when Lingle will step down as governor due to a two-term, four-year limit.
As chairwoman of the councils’ Community Assistance Committee, Iseri-Carvalho reviewed the Anahola project plans with her counterpart in the Baptiste administration, Bernard Carvalho, who heads the county Offices of Community Assistance.
“(Baptiste) has created a housing advisory task force committee, and Bernard has been at the forefront of that,” Iseri-Carvalho said.
At the same time, Baptiste’s administration gives priority to processing permits to affordable housing projects across the island, including the DHHL one that is getting off the ground, Iseri-Carvalho said.
Most of the project is being developed under DHHL’s undivided interest awards program, which requires no financial pre-qualification, as no lot or home is being selected at this time.
The program also gives lessees time to get rid of debts, find financing for the homes they will live in and to prepare for homeownership, Kane said.
DHHL spokesman Lloyd Yonenaka said the lots will be a minimum size of 10,000 square feet, and lessees can either buy homes built by a developer for DHHL, build a home through a self-help housing project or build homes on vacant lots.
• Lester Chang, staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 225) or lchang@kauaipubco.com.
