The Kaua’i County Planning Commission yesterday denied intervenor status to a Kapa’a’ couple who are fighting against a proposal by the HanaMana Healing Center for a treatment and rehabilitation for drug and alcohol abusers by their home in Kapa’a Homesteads.
The controversy has put proponents of the center and neighbors in two camps. More than 50 area residents reportedly have signed a petition opposing the proposal, stressing security concerns may arise with establishment of the center. The petition was sent to the commission for review.
Representatives for HanaMana, meanwhile, have acknowledged the concerns, but say ample security measures will be implemented, including fencing and screening of patients, should the project get the green light.
The HanaMana proposal calls for the conversion of the former Wong’s Care home at the end of Kawaihau Road.
Meeting yesterday at the Lihu’e Civic Center, the commission, by a 4 to 3 vote, denied the request for intervenor status sought by the Browns.
The commission essentially told the Browns that they waited too long to file their request.
A notice said the Browns had to have filed for that status seven days before the first hearing was held Nov. 25.
“We didn’t know (we had to file so soon),” Harold Brown said after yesterday’s meeting. “I am not an attorney.”
Brown was eligible to file for that status because he lives next door to the old Wong’s Care Home and because of his concerns about security and laundry water that flows from the former care home to his property. That issue of errant flow of laundry water has apparently been taken care of, Brown said.
Brown and other critics said the HanaMana project is needed on Kaua’i, but question its placement within a residential area.
Such a project should be relocated instead at Mahelona Hospital in Kapa’a, where services HanaMana envisions bringing to the community were offered previously, Brown said after the commission meeting.
Those services were offered in bunker-type buildings on the grounds of the state hospital, but those services came to an end because the buildings were damaged by Hurricane Iniki and became unusable, Brown said.
In a letter, Mayor Bryan Baptiste has told HanaMana Executive Director Hans Tangelder that “Kaua’i is in need of such a facility, and that Kaua’i has been without a residential drug-treatment center since Serenity House closed on the hospital grounds.
Support for the project also has come from Scott N. Giarman, executive director of the Kauai United Way, and Thomas Warling and his wife, April K. Wong Warling, co-owners of the old Wong’s Care Home along with April Wong Warling’s parents.
The care home served the community for about 30 years, and drew praise from the community when it closed in recent years.
At the commission meeting, Brown said he had concerns about not being sufficiently notified about the new proposal. Brown said as far as he can recall, Tangelder or his representatives contacted him three times, but by phone only about the project.
Brown said verbal assurances from HanaMana representatives that his concerns would be taken care of were not good enough for him. “‘Don’t worry about, we will take care of it,'” Brown said of the type of assurances HanaMana representatives have told him. “I can’t depend on that (and wanted written assurances).”
Brown said he has received only one letter from the HanaMana Center.
In a letter addressed to Brown and Norma Jean Brown, Tangelder said he was taken aback by comments Brown made in opposing the project at the Nov. 25 meeting, urging “Let’s be friends.”
In a Dec. 3 letter, Tangelder said the proponents of the project have initiated a study with engineers to address waste water situations.
HanaMana representatives also will look at the removal of cement on neighboring properties, and will install fencing to help prevent patients from wandering away from the proposed center, Tangelder said.
Security concerns have been the focus of letters Brown and neighbors have sent to government officials. They said the center could treat large numbers of patients who could pose a safety threat to the neighborhood.
The previous owners of the old Wong’s Care Home had already been treating patients with alcoholism and drug use problems, though smaller in numbers, since the mid-1980s, according to county Planning Department documents.
Tangelder also has said in other letters to the county that qualified individuals would be hired to help ensure the recovery of the center’s patients.
Tangelder also has said that families or people will be required to set up appointments before they visit patients.
HanaMana officials are seeking from the commission various permits, including a use permit and a Class IV zoning permit.
Once the renovation is completed, the center can accommodate up to 35 patients, with four existing one-bedroom apartments set aside for their use, according to county Planning Department planners.
An existing recreation room would be renovated for group meetings and for use by patients, county planning officials said.
A public hearing on the HanaMana proposal is scheduled to resume on the afternoon on Jan. 13 at the Lihu’e Civic Center.
