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. 266 LAND AND POWER IN HAWAII 8 /Hawaii:Subdividing Lava Fields 267 after touring several subdivisions in 1961:"I spent a day destroying a pair of judge and then lieutenant governor; who served as the attorney for Glen- shoes walkingover these lava'developments,'taking pictures to remind my- wood Subdivision and for Kalapana Corporation, which bought and sold self that they had no irrigation, no roads, no essential utilities, no beaches, land that later became Kalapana Vacation Lots; and Jack K. Suwa,who for no buildings—nothing except lava. much of the 1970s chaired the powerful House Finance Committee, and If there was some distance between Royal Gardens and the beach, and who was a shareholder in Kalapana Corporation, also a limited partner in some distance between the advertising brochures and reality,there was also • Vacationland Associates, the developer of Vacationland Hawaii. some distance between what Royal Gardens was supposed to do under Other Democratic politicians involved were former senator William J. county law and what the developers actually did. • Nobriga as the developer of Aloha Estates; Stanley I. Hara, a Democratic For example,lots were sold in the second increment for three years with- representative and later a senator; who as a corporate officer and partner out county permission. The County Planning Department staff wrote in was involved with Orchid Land Estates and Vacationland Hawaii;and Rob- 1966 that "the subdivider sold lots to individuals within Unit II of Royal ert M. Yamada, Democratic member of the Board of Supervisors, County Gardens Subdivision which was declared null and void by the Commission Council,and Planning Commission,who in 1958 sold the 12,000 acres that in October; 1963, and any sale transaction within this unit is considered became the first such.subdivision, and who as a developer or road building illegal."32 In other ways there were indications that the emphasis was so ;' P contractor took part in the creation of a 413-lot project near Kalapana strictly on mass selling of purely investment or speculative real estate that • Beach, of Eden Roc, Hawaiian Ocean View Estates, and of a subdivision rational quality control procedures were not initially adopted: called Hawaiian Parks,Beaches and Shores. After the experience of the first few years of the boom,subdividers were rAnother prominent member of the Big Island Democratic establish- required to post a performance bond on their promise to build site im- ment,though not a politician,who was a partner in Vacationland Associates provements. Usually these improvements were nothing more than roads, i and a shareholder in Kalapana Cor p p., was Yoshio Yanagawa. From 1960 and substandard at that. But even so, in the case of Royal Gardens, the +: through 1966 he worked for county and state urban renewal and housing County for years was prepared to accept a letter of credit from an affiliate of agencies,and in 1966 was appointed executive director of the state's Hawaii the subdivider, rather than requiring an actual bond from an unaffiliated Housing Authority. company. One Big Island Republican involved was Sen. William H. Hill's protege, This practice was not halted until 1973, following a memo from the Richard Henderson, as a director of a company developing Kapoho Beach County Department of Public Works:"Letters of credit should generally not Lots.(Henderson became a senator himself in 1970.) be accepted in lieu of a performance bond because the future worth of the Henderson also was president of The Realty Investment Co. Ltd., which letter of credit is tied directly to the applicant's financial stability. In order to in 1969 petitioned the Land Use Commission for the redistricting to urban avoid such problems,we recommend that performance bonds insured by a of 428 acres of what ultimately was to be a 6,000-acre resort-residential corn- financial institution not connected with the applicant be required. plex in the Kapoho area of Puna.Bishop Estate trustee and former Republi- can senator Richard J. Lyman Jr.was president of the Kapoho Land & De- * * * velopinent Co.which owned the land involved in the petition. The LUC staff believed the project to be essentially one more Puna land With all this as background, what was the connection on the Big Island sale scheme,and wrote in recommendingdenial: "Approval of this petition between speculative subdividing and politics? would contribute to the already scattered residential developments which The public record shows that if a large number of Big Island families • are so evident in the Puna District and would therefore be contrary to the were buying lots, their political leaders were heavily involved in creating intents andur oses of the Land Use Law. those lots for sale. P P "39 (This LUC application was surely one of the most extreme ever filed. The petitioners' planning con- Most of the island's most influential legislators of the 1960s and 1970s sultant wrote that the project's "major tourist attractions include . . . the were involved with companies doing speculative subdivisions, as partners, • 1960 lava cone and surrounding lava field providing visitors with an oppor- corporate officers,shareholders or attorneys. tunity to experience the awesome forces of nature."35 Indeed. The project Included were Democrats Kazuhisa Abe, who became Senate president would sit directly on top of an active volcanic rift zone. About half of the and later an associate supreme court justice, who as a corporate officer total project area had been inundated by eruptions in 1955 and 1960. More helped direct the creation of Orchid Land Estates and Vacationland Ha- eruptions were almost certain to come,making it likely that residents would waii;Nelson K.Doi,also a Senate president who later became a circuit court experience the awesome forces of nature at very close quarters, for'instance