Hokulia and the Big Island (WSJ)

In "Land-Use Ruling Shakes Hawaii Developers," the Wall Street Journal of July 6, 2005, p. B1, links the stalled Hokulia project on the Big Island to "potentially ominous implications" for the local economy and the island's past and future development. Environmentalists won a state circuit court ruling that Hokulia's luxury subdivision is an illegal use of agriculturally-zoned land, and construction was halted in 2003. With this ruling, some 1500 homes already built on agricultural land on the Big Island, many owned by mainland and Japanese investors, could be subject to legal challenges. The Hawaii Supreme Court has not set a hearing date for the Hokulia developer's appeal. (WSJ is available in the Library)