May 2007

The Star-Bulletin also reports on the Kauai Springs litigation, a case challenging the Kauai Planning Department’s denial of a request to use land zoned “Agriculture” on grounds wholly outside its authority or jurisdiction:

The lawyer for Kauai Springs, however, said that water is a food like any other agricultural product and that closing down an agricultural business for commercially selling its product is ludicrous.

Robert Thomas, an attorney with Pacific Legal Foundation[*] representing Kauai Springs, said last week that the commission made a hasty decision, overstepped its bounds and made a decision on water rights, not land rights.

Both the state Public Utilities Commission and the State Commission on Water Resource Management wrote letters to the county, saying the company had met all their criteria.

Full story here.  [*Note – one correction: I’m representing Kauai Springs in my private capacity, and Pacific Legal Foundation is not presently involved.]  Continue Reading ▪ More on Kauai Zoning Permit Case

Kauai’s newspaper, in a story entitled “Kauai Springs operating for now,” reports on a case:

“We’re in a holding pattern,” said Robert Thomas, an attorney with Damon Key Leong Kupchak Hastert representing Kaua‘i Springs.

In March, Kaua‘i Springs appealed the Planning Commission’s decision to deny its request for a use permit, special permit and Class IV Zoning permit.

The company had requested the additional permits after a competitor complained that it was conducting industrial activity on agricultural lands, according to Thomas.

When owner Jim Satterfield set up shop in 2004, he did so with county, state and federal approval.

Thomas said that while his client did not agree that more permits were necessary when the issue came up earlier this year, he decided to pursue them because there had not been problems in the past.

Full article here.Continue Reading ▪ Kauai Zoning Permit Case Reported