Some South Shore residents have urged Koloa Market Place to preserve the over 50-year-old Monkeypod trees as the developer moves forward with plans for a 7.5-acre commercial project in Koloa town. Following a meeting Thursday night to inform the public
Some South Shore residents have urged Koloa Market Place to preserve the over 50-year-old Monkeypod trees as the developer moves forward with plans for a 7.5-acre commercial project in Koloa town.
Following a meeting Thursday night to inform the public about the project, Carol Ann Davis Briant and others said relocating the more than nine trees at the project site and implementing other improvements could erode the rustic flavor of the historic plantation town.
“Moving trees is a dangerous thing to do,” Briant said. “I don’t care what the arborist says. Moving a 75-year-old tree, you are going to disturb it.”
Stacey Wong, a representative for the Knudsen Trust, which owns the land on which Koloa Market proposes its project, has said Briant and others point to problems that aren’t likely to materialize.
Wong wasn’t available for comment Friday, but he said earlier this week 43 trees, most of which are Monkeypod trees, will be standing at the site when the project is approved and developed.
At a March 14 meeting with the community and Kaua‘i County Planning Commission, the developer agreed to pay for a landscaped median on parts of Koloa Road, Wong said.
The median would be home to some of the trees, Wong said.
Koloa Market Place is seeking various permits from the Kaua‘i County Planning Commission for its project, “The Shops at Koloa Town.”
The developer is proposing a 76,200-square-foot retail building complex with offices on two parcels zoned for urban use.
Plans also call for relocating the Koloa post office to another area on the 7.5-acre parcel. The shopping center also have a restaurant and 343 paved parking stalls.
The planning commission will continue a hearing on the proposal at a meeting at the Lihu‘e Civic Center at 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday.
Briant, who attended Thursday’s meeting, said representatives for the developer reported two Monkeypod trees would remain standing in front of the post office.
Briant said a third tree would join other trees in the planned median strip.
Briant also said she has concerns about plans by the developer to raise buildings that could be flooded out during heavy rains.
For reasons of aesthetics, the developer plans to cover the stilts with vines or draping bougainvillea plants.
“We are concerned about the visual impact of the stilts on people who drive into town and see raised buildings,” Briant said.
The raised buildings would be in a stark contrast to the lower-lying, one-story buildings in Koloa town, she said.
Briant also said the 343 proposed parking lots are not enough to accommodate huge volumes of traffic and vehicles of employees. She said the developer doesn’t foresee major problems because not all the stalls would be used at one time.
“We would like to cut down the density of the project to provide more parking, but the developer can’t provide more parking, and the option is to cut down the density, which the developer is not going to do,” Briant said.
Briant said she doesn’t oppose the project, adding she liked the design of the buildings because the structures are somewhat like the rustic buildings in Koloa town.
Ted Blake, a South Shore resident who also attended the meeting, said he was frustrated because representatives for the developer were “noncommittal” on the question of whether traffic circulation plans of the project would complement the proposed regional, multi-faceted transportation plan.
Jim Charlier, the chief executive officer with Charlier Associates, based in Boulder, Colo., announced up to nine developers and landowners in South Kaua‘i were poised to hire his firm at a cost $300,000 to develop the transportation plan.
Blake, the brother of former Kaua‘i County Attorney Hartwell H.K. Blake and the son of Hartwell K. Blake, the one-time head of the Kaua‘i County Board of Supervisors (now the council), said representatives for the developer and the Knudsen Trust didn’t provide a clear answer to him on how the project’s circulation plan could complement a regional transportation plan.
“I was concerned with how the Knudsen Trust would integrate its plan with the transportation plan, and the developer was noncommittal,” Blake said.
Wong said the Knudsen Trust wants to do its share to alleviate traffic problems in South Kaua‘i.
“The Knudsen Trust has already committed to provide its fair share for the area transportation study,” he said.
That share could be as high as $60,000, he said.
Blake also said he had concerns over decisions by the developer and Knudsen Trust to hold the meeting on Thursday night, because with at least seven community meetings having been held in South Kaua‘i between March 24 and June 8, the turnout by Koloa and Po‘ipu residents at Thursday’s meeting probably would have been light.
Because another function was held at the Koloa Neighborhood Center on June 8, the Koloa Community Association couldn’t hold a meeting there on that day, Blake said.
The association board was preparing to hold a workshop on the transportation plan at the center on June 15, and had asked Knudsen Trust to hold its informational meeting after that day, Blake said.
Instead, Knudsen Trust secured the use of the Southshore Baptist Mission Church, and held its meeting Thursday.
The developer and the Knudsen Trust had no other choice, Blake said.
At an earlier meeting, the Kaua‘i Planning Commission required the developer to make a presentation before the Koloa Community Association before the developer’s public hearing on June 13.
“At one point, I looked at the project favorably, because it looked like a good project,” Blake said. “Now I question that because of the tactics used by the Knudsen Trust to force this issue on the community to meet its deadlines with the planning commission.”
Blake also said the meeting was stacked with people who supported the project.
“Seventy-five percent of the audience members were made up of Knudsen family members, leaseholders of the Knudsen Estate and contractors who will work with the project,” he said. “I would say about 20 people were residents from the area.
The Garden Island made two calls on Friday to a Knudsen Trust representative to contact Wong for a response to comments by Blake and Briant. As of press time the calls were not returned.
• Lester Chang, staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 225) or lchang@kauaipubco.com.
