# Kauai - Serious mud run-off from new development



## DeniseM (Dec 1, 2007)

Remember the 1,000 acre development on the hillside behind The Lawai Beach Resort?  It got almost six inches of rain on Wed. and the ocean from Kukui‘ula Small Boat Harbor - south, was red with mud from the run-off from the erosion.  Locals said it was the worst run off they have ever seen.  Officials have warned people not to go in the water.  The developer described it as, "natural run off."  I don't have a good feeling about this development.  

Kauai Garden Island News


----------



## vacationtime1 (Dec 1, 2007)

The boat launch at Koloa Landing (about 1/2 mile east of the Lawai TS and the Beach House restaurant) is used by many of the local scuba enthusiasts, outfitters, and schools.  It has wonderful underwater scenery, is accessible, and is not too difficult for novices.  It is in exactly the area DeniseM is describing.

Sounds like we will do exactly what we did to Hanauma Bay on Oahu -- destroy exactly what we admired most about the area.


----------



## Fisch (Dec 1, 2007)

DeniseM said:


> Remember the 1,000 acre development on the hillside behind The Lawai Beach Resort?  It got almost six inches of rain on Wed. and the ocean from Kukui‘ula Small Boat Harbor - south, was red with mud from the run-off from the erosion.  Locals said it was the worst run off they have ever seen.  Officials have warned people not to go in the water.  The developer described it as, "natural run off."  I don't have a good feeling about this development.
> 
> Kauai Garden Island News



Look at the bright side.  Once it's paved there will be ZERO mud run off, ever.


----------



## DeniseM (Dec 1, 2007)

Fisch said:


> Look at the bright side.  Once it's *paved* there will be ZERO mud run off, ever.



Joni Mitchell  and the Counting Crows said it best:

_*They paved paradise and put up a parkin' lot
With a pink hotel, a boutique, and a swingin' hot spot
Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you got till it's gone
They paved paradise and put up a parking lot
*_


----------



## GaryDouglas (Dec 1, 2007)

Joni Mitchell was first...


----------



## DeniseM (Dec 1, 2007)

GaryDouglas said:


> Joni Mitchell was first...



You got me there! - fixed it!


----------



## auntdef (Dec 1, 2007)

She wrote it!.....and lots of other great songs


----------



## jerseygirl (Dec 2, 2007)

My daughter and I used to have a backward version of that song as we watched every parking lot in our neighborhood get turned into condos!


----------



## thinze3 (Dec 3, 2007)

Imagine the traffic in Koloa and on Hwy 50 back to Lihue.
It will be nasty.


----------



## T_R_Oglodyte (Dec 3, 2007)

You know, Princeville was paradise before they turned it into golf courses and condos.  So was Po'ipu.  So was Kona.  Waikalua. Ka'anapali. Kapa'a.  And so on.

If you really want to take a stand against development on the islands, as a matter of principle you simply shouldn't go.  Why only rail against the development that has occurred since they developed the projects we've all bought into?


----------



## DeniseM (Dec 3, 2007)

You're right of course, Steve, but did you notice that this development is 1,000 acres?  Are there any others that big?  And of course the infrastructure won't be improved to accommodate it, so traffic, among other things will be a nightmare.  I don't have all the answers, but I don't have to like it!


----------



## T_R_Oglodyte (Dec 4, 2007)

DeniseM said:


> You're right of course, Steve, but did you notice that this development is 1,000 acres?  Are there any others that big?



Still quite a bit smaller than Princeville.  And there weren't any major infrastructure improvements added when Princeville went in, either.

****

I figure infrastructure issues will get addressed in much the same way as on the mainland - i.e., after the development goes in and the tax base rises to pay for the infrastructure. 

The key transportation issue is the 2-lane highway from the shopping center on the west side of Lihu'e through Knudsen Gap to Tree Tunnels Road (the Koloa turnoff).  As tax revenues increase in Koloa and points west, the political drive will follow to add some extra capacity to the road and to the alternate routes into Lihu'e.

It's progress, of sorts. Instead of growing sugar cane, Kaua'i is growing tourists.  As much issues as the development causes, the reality is that with the demise of sugar another economic driver is required. If not tourism, what?? When the county council approves the projects, that's what the reality they are addressing.  If you throttle tourism, you throttle the economy. It's tough enough now trying to survive as a local.


----------



## johnmfaeth (Dec 4, 2007)

Once a reef is silted over, it largely dies. And then the fish go elsewhere and the affected section becomes sterile...

How sad...


----------



## Jestjoan (Dec 4, 2007)

*Trouble in paradise*

That is such sad news. The developer's attitude is sickening......


----------



## meatsss (Dec 6, 2007)

*We'll be there in mid January*

Will let you know how it looks then. I really enjoy snorkling off the beach in front of LBR.


----------



## Neesie (Dec 6, 2007)

*no, I think it was John Prine*



GaryDouglas said:


> Joni Mitchell was first...




Actually I think John Prine's "Paradise" came before Joni Mitchell's Parking Lot.

"And daddy won't you take me back to Muhlenberg County
Down by the Green River, where paradise lay?

Well I'm sorry my son, but you're too late in askin'
Mr. Peabody's coal train has hauled it away."


----------



## JohnnyO (Feb 19, 2008)

This place and the other two developments are massive.

Only from $900k to $3+ million

Koloa Landing Poipu Beach


----------



## Kauai Kid (Feb 19, 2008)

I'm waiting to see a post state the ditch behind Lawai Beach Resort was insufficient to hold all the water from a downpour and the whole area flooded.

The "greenies" are so concerned about invasive species but I never heard them comment on the ravages to the environment caused by developers.  Are there no laws on Kauai or Hawaii to eliminate the rape of the environment? 

Sterling


----------



## JLB (Feb 19, 2008)

Was it not, "parking lot, lot, lot" ?
- - - - - -
When we were there, and it was some time ago, during monsoon season, on our helicopter ride you could see the red stain coming out of the river and into the harbor.  Seems like the stain was just sorta going willi-nilli.  




DeniseM said:


> Joni Mitchell  and the Counting Crows said it best:
> 
> _*They paved paradise and put up a parkin' lot
> With a pink hotel, a boutique, and a swingin' hot spot
> ...


----------



## DaveNV (Feb 19, 2008)

DeniseM said:


> Joni Mitchell  and the Counting Crows said it best:
> 
> _*They paved paradise and put up a parkin' lot
> With a pink hotel, a boutique, and a swingin' hot spot
> ...




Denise, you may already know this, but Joni Mitchell wrote Big Yellow Taxi after traveling to Hawaii for a concert weekend around 1970.  She was blown away by all the development in Waikiki, and that song was the result.  The "pink hotel" she refers to is the Moana.  The "big yellow taxi" is supposedly the eight-door taxis they used to have in the islands.  The "tree museum" is a reference to the Foster Botanical Gardens in Honolulu.  

Not a great reason to be memorialized in a song, but it still applies, all these years later.

Dave


----------



## DeniseM (Feb 19, 2008)

Thanks Dave - I didn't know that, but I find it very interesting!


----------



## T_R_Oglodyte (Feb 19, 2008)

Does no one else appreciate the irony here?  A major goal of participants here is securing our accommodations at resorts built in our favorite little pieces of paradise around the globe.

Yet here we are complaining about people building resorts in those little pieces of paradise.


----------



## "Roger" (Feb 19, 2008)

The age old saying where I live Steve is that everyone wants their house to be the last one built in the country.  Its okay for them to build, but no one else should be allowed to because that would spoil it for them.


----------



## DeniseM (Feb 19, 2008)

T_R_Oglodyte said:


> Does no one else appreciate the irony here?  A major goal of participants here is securing our accommodations at resorts built in our favorite little pieces of paradise around the globe.
> 
> Yet here we are complaining about people building resorts in those little pieces of paradise.



They are not building a resort - it's a 1,000 acre development of very expensive homes.  That means that locals and Tuggers won't be buying them...

If these were affordable homes for locals, that would be different!


----------



## JustPlainBill (Feb 19, 2008)

If they were "affordable" (whatever that means these days) homes for locals, that would be awful. The traffic would be a mess. But they are building $1M to $4M second homes for dummy mainlanders. The homes will not be occupied much, if at all. I expect the developer to go bankrupt and leave a mess behind.:annoyed:


----------



## thinze3 (Feb 19, 2008)

As for the drainage and potential flooding - already happened at the Marriott Kauai. The owners there are still paying the assessments.

As for housing for the locals - In the new mega-developement next to the Marriott Kaui, Marriott agreed to supply a certain number of affordable homes for the locals who would be potentially working at the resort.


----------

