All this week you can get a free meal at BYU-Hawaii’s The Club all this week (Monday-Friday) when you recycle your old ink cartridges (3 = breakfast, 4 = lunch and 5 = dinner)

On Tuesday, April 24, there is a Tahitian Vanilla Bean dinner at The Club from 4-8 p.m. The dinner is hosted by the farmers and owners of the Kahuku Vanilla Farm.

On Thursday, April 26, Sustainability Information Booths will be on display in the Aloha Center (room 155/165) from 11-2 p.m. Presented by SWATT, First Wind, BYU-Hawaii Facilities Management, and BYU-Hawaii Food Services, the booths will include a new bicycle shop display, Give and Take, energy reduction information, de-bulbing program, and a computer energy saving program. Presenters will be available for questions and general discussion.

On Friday, April 27, BYU-Hawaii Food Services is sponsoring a Farmer’s Market in the Aloha Center (room 155/165 and Mall) from 11-2 p.m.  The Farmer’s Market is held every other Friday at BYU-Hawaii).

In addition to these on-campus events, a recycling and clean-up project for Kahuku Elementary School has been announced for early May. On Saturday May 5 between 8 a.m. and 12 p.m., you can drop off scrap metal, used cooking oil, computers, printers, mobile phones, print cartridges, batteries, TVs and other equipment for recycling. These donations will help “turn trash into cash” for student programs at Kahuku Elementary School. Please call Mari Lei at 808.293.2401 for more details about this worthwhile service project.

Inoke Suguturaga, Fiji Islands manager at the Polynesian Cultural Center, and his wife Ateca Suguturaga, are responding to the call for help. In partnership with the BYU-Hawaii Fijian Club, Fiji alumni and the local Fijian community, they are organizing a disaster relief drive.

“We’re accepting donations of blankets, canned food and children’s clothing,” said Inoke Suguturaga. ”We’re grateful to Hawaii Reserves for donating shopping center space as a collection point, and hope the community will respond in a big way.” Our hearts go out to those individuals and families in Fiji that have suffered, and we’re grateful that our community has this opportunity to help provide some relief.

Donated items will be flown to Fiji for immediate distribution to disaster victims.

• Dates: Tuesday, April 10 through Friday, April 13 from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.
• Location: Laie Shopping Center – space between Jeans Warehouse and Da Kine Wireless
• Donations: blankets, canned food, children’s clothing

You can check out pictures of the Laie Electric Car Event last Saturday March 24 on our Facebook page. Better Place also posted video on their YouTube page.  Mahalo to everyone who participated in the event!

Demonstrations, including test drives of electric cars, will be offered to attendees with a valid driver’s license. Displays and information focused on energy, green living and sustainability will be featured, and volunteers will be on hand to answer questions. Thanks to Hawaiian Electric, educational materials and car air fresheners will be given out to attendees.

Oahu’s transportation system is taking an electrifying leap forward with the installation of hundreds of electric vehicle charging stations. Laie’s charging stations fill a need for charging locations beyond metro-Honolulu and other urban cores.

Electric vehicles are part of Envision Laie’s long range plans to support clean energy transportation options for the entire community — residents, students and visitors to the region.

Event partners include: Hawaiian Electric Company, Inc., Kokua Hawaii Foundation, BYU-Hawaii’s Sustainable World Action & Technology Team (SWATT), Cutter Mitsubishi, Polynesian Cultural Center, Hawaii Reserves, Inc., Laie Shopping Center and Better Place.

Better Place, in cooperation with HRI and PCC, installed and manages Laie’s electric vehicle charging stations. Electric car drivers can use the Better Place charge spots free of charge through the end of 2012 by signing up for a free membership at www.betterplace.com/hawaii.

Oahu was inundated last week with heavy rains and thunderstorms islandwide, causing flooding, rock slides, damage to homes, and even hail and a tornado! For those of us in Ko’olau Loa, the worst of it hit early Friday morning as several inches of rain came down in less than an hour. Fortunately our communities were spared major damage and injury. However, some families suffered property loss and our hearts go out to them.

In Laie, a number of positive developments helped mitigate the heavy water. First and foremost, everyone pulled together. Residents were out helping keep the dozens of drains throughout the community clear of debris, and neighbors were helping one another shore up their homes and clean up after the waters receded. We especially thank Hopate Taufa of Iosepa Electric who donated his time and equipment to assist residents. This story and the video above from KHON2 details some of the stories.

Employees from our local institutions helped with labor and heavy equipment by pumping water out of the lowest lying properties, distributing sandbags and sand to residents, continually checking and clearing drainage outfalls and inlets, and limiting access where passing traffic was creating waves. Regularly scheduled maintenance by the Laie entities helped prepare our community drainage system: Fields were trimmed, canals and streams were clear of debris, and gutters were empty.

We learned some things about how we can all respond more efficiently and we are always evaluating ways to get the most capacity from our current drainage system and area. For example, we believe the Polynesian Cultural Center’s lowering of its lagoon Thursday night and BYU-Hawaii’s use of the flow limiter at its administration parking lot helped retain more water on those properties — resulting in less water in the community.

Long-term drainage solutions for Laie depend on increasing the outfall capacity at two key “choke” points: Wailele stream and Laieloa bridge near Foodland. After discussion with the Laie Community Association (LCA) and Hawaii Reserves, Inc. (HRI), the State has agreed to widen the bridge on Kamehameha Highway, more than doubling its outfall capacity. Work is expected to begin in 2013.

LCA and HRI are also working with the city and federal government, including the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, on a long-term solution for Wailele Stream. Since its completion in 1990, the northern end of Laie has generally been protected by the Army Corps of Engineers Kahawainui Flood Control Project. Similar benefits are anticipated for the southern end of Laie if a project is approved for the Wailele Stream.

Again, we thank everyone for your neighborly kokua as we continue to work and pull together as a community.

A Brigham Young University–Hawaii groundbreaking ceremony at the site of its future multi-use building on Saturday Dec. 17 marked the beginning stages of construction for the renovation and growth of the BYU–Hawaii campus.

Plans call for 11 new buildings, including the multi-use building, two married student apartment buildings, seven single-student dormitories that will replace existing on-campus dorms, and one single-student apartment building. The apartment building will offer an additional option for on-campus living.

Doug Chin, managing director for the City and County of Honolulu, spoke at the groundbreaking about both the economic and cultural importance of BYU–Hawaii to the community. “We know this is a time when there are many concerns about the economy and jobs,” he said. “When we look at BYU–Hawaii and we realize it employs 400 full-time people as well as several hundred part-time people, we realize what a valuable contribution it makes to the community. We are very excited to be able to see this multi-purpose building being built because it represents a further expansion, more jobs and it represents a commitment to the community.”

Highlights of Chin’s remarks can be watched in the video posted with this story.

Speaking on behalf of the University’s Board of Trustees was Elder Jeffery R. Holland from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. “Education is expensive,” he said. “It’s very expensive. But it is not nearly as expensive as ignorance.” Elder Holland also spoke about Laie’s early history as a gathering place for Polynesian Mormons and how it is now the most internationally diverse university in the United States.

And when speaking about the importance of gathering and diversity, Chin said, “All of us know how special Oahu is and that it’s a gathering place. It’s a wonderful location for people from all over the world to come and that is something we see with the diversity of BYU–Hawaii.”

The 41,000-square-foot multi-use building is expected to be an 18-month project. When finished, it will house the College of Business, Computing and Government and be used for Church meetings on Sunday.  The two-story building will include chapels, faculty and ecclesiastical offices, and a mixture of technology-enhanced classrooms.

Using shovels and the traditional Hawaiian o’o crafted by local master carver Tuione Polotu, leaders from Laie, Honolulu and the University broke ground during the event. These leaders included Auntie Gladys Pualoa-Ahuna, a kupuna whose family ties to Laie pre-date Western contact; BYU–Hawaii President Steven Wheelwright; Vice President of Academics Max Checketts; Dean Glade Tew from the College of Business, Computing and Government; Elder Paul V. Johnson, Commissioner of the Church Education System and member of the First Quorum of the Seventy; BYU–Hawaii Third Stake President Phillip McArthur; Managing Director Doug Chin from the City and County of Honolulu; and Elder Jeffery R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

The growth of BYU–Hawaii is the primary reason why the Envision Laie planning process was launched within the Koolau Loa community three years ago. Envision Laie is about planning a future that protects the quality of life and emphasizes the values of the people who live in Koolau Loa. The process has included a number of public workshops, surveys and other meetings. In fact, growing BYU–Hawaii 5 to 6 percent per year is supported by 71 percent of Koolau Loa residents. Envision Laie not only includes plans for the University to become more sustainable, but also affordable housing in Malaekahana.

You can read news on the Polynesian Cultural Center’s newly renovated and re-envisioned Gateway restaurant in our latest Envision Laie Newsletter. Redesigned to evoke the feel of a Samoan fale with wooden pillars and angular sweeping roof, the restaurant is adorned with shell torches providing ambient lighting and features one of the world’s largest murals — extending nearly 8,000 square feet and taking guests on a visual journey through the many cultures of Polynesia.

As reported in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser earlier this year, this is part of “a $38 million, five-year plan to refresh the Polynesian Cultural Center.”

This five-year plan…is “the first step in a multistep growth plan to help us get back over the million-visitor mark.” The center logged 1.25 million visitors in 1979, when there were no direct mainland-to-neighbor island flights and Oahu attractions’ visitor counts were high.

The renovated facility now has an expanded capacity of 24,400 square feet within the 27,000-square-foot building. The restaurants will serve authentic foods representing the center’s six island villages and from islands throughout the Pacific. Diners will eat amid ambience enhanced by “$3 million to $4 million worth of ‘wow’ factor,” including 25-foot-high murals depicting Hawaiian life and people arriving in Hawaii.

The Laie Inn, which the new hotel will replace, was built in 1964 and torn down in late 2009. The rebuilding of the hotel will be facilitated by Hawaii Reserves Inc. (HRI), which oversees Hawaii properties for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

Many Laie residents joined in today’s testimony to say they are happy to have a new facility that will serve their current needs and provide further employment throughout the community. About 2/3 of the participants spoke in favor, and applauded the final passage.

“I see the need. I see the benefit to families and students. As a small business owner, I see the opportunities,” said a longtime Laie resident and businessman.

Honolulu City Council Chair Ernest Martin, who represents District 2, and several other council members said the standards for the SMA were fairly high in this application and complemented everyone, the city, HRI, and particularly the community for working long and hard on this project.

“The replacement hotel will provide reasonable accommodations for those enjoying the Polynesian Cultural Center and visiting friends and family in the region,” said Eric Beaver, HRI president and chairman. “It’s a reasonable solution that balances moderate job growth for residents with maintaining Laie’s unique, local environment.”

The replacement Laie Hotel in the Koolauloa region of Oahu, has island-wide support. Seventy percent of Oahu residents favor the building of the new hotel, with positive reaction in the Koolauloa region even higher at 72 percent, according to recent market research.*

The construction phase will bring in 150 jobs, with more than $2.5 million in wages. After completion, the 220-room hotel is estimated to provide about 125 jobs on site, both regular and part-time, with guest expenditures anticipated at $28 million annually.

The plan is for the hotel to provide training opportunities for students enrolled in Brigham Young University-Hawaii’s hospitality and tourism program. Its contemporary Hawaiian design will complement nearby Polynesian Cultural Center and the local community.

Already zoned for resort development, the new, moderately sized hotel will incorporate substantial setbacks. Its height will meet the under roof 40 foot height limitation. The hotel will be located across the street from the beach, leaving views toward the ocean undisturbed from the main highway.

Environmental, cultural and economic impact studies were completed in 2007 as part of the Environmental Assessment (EA) for the property. The City’s Department of Planning & Permitting, which issued a “Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI)” in July 2008, accepted the EA.

The new hotel’s underground storm water containment system will decrease site run-off by about 10 percent. The watershed and drainage studies, mandated as special conditions by the City Council, will help address the community’s most problematic drainage challenges during heavy rain events.

The purpose of the SMA review is to ensure the project is consistent with SMA coastal zone objectives, including access to and preservation of coastal resources and the environment. With today’s vote, the city Department of Planning and Permitting and City Council affirm that the impact on the coastal environment will not be significant.

* Market Research conducted by Heart + Mind Strategies with field research by Ward Research.

After four previous public input meetings, including two City Council Zoning Committee meetings, and a full Honolulu City Council hearing last month, the council will hold what many expect will be the final hearing on a permit application for the Laie hotel. If approved, the hotel project should finally be able to move forward towards groundbreaking.

The meeting is set for this Friday, September 16th, 10 a.m. in the City Council Chamber at Honolulu Hale. Even if you don’t testify, your attendance in support is important and makes a difference. Opposing voices have been working hard to prevent opportunities for needed growth and jobs, and will be at the hearing to voice their opinions.

Although the site is already zoned for hotel and business use, a Special Management Area permit is needed due to the site’s proximity to the shoreline. The goal is to have the hotel open for the PCC’s 50th Anniversary in 2013. For more info on the hotel and SMA permit application, please see our February 18, 2011 post.

To see the City Council agenda for the September 16th hearing, please click here.  To submit written testimony, please go to: http://www.honolulu.gov/council/emailccl.htm

Our collective support is critical to our community’s future.

To follow-up on the KHON story yesterday, the The Star-Advertiser ran a story today on the City Council vote Wednesday Aug. 17 on the Laie Hotel Redevelopment.

The City Council on Wednesday will consider plans to build a hotel on the site of the old Laie Inn that represent a skirmish over a much larger project that continues to divide Laie. The issue before the Council is whether to grant a special management area permit to allow construction of a 223-room Courtyard by Marriott hotel next to the Polynesian Cultural Center where the 49-unit Laie Inn used to sit. The inn was torn down in 2009.

In The Star-Advertiser, officials “say the hotel will create 125 jobs and reduce the need for visitors to travel back and forth to the Turtle Bay Resort and as far away as Waikiki for lodging.”

If the SMA permit is granted, building permits for the hotel can be obtained, with groundbreaking anticipated at the end of this year. The goal is to have the hotel open for the Polynesian Cultural Center’s 50th Anniversary in 2013.

The redevelopment plan is for a 222-room Courtyard by Marriott Hotel. The construction phase is expected to generate 150 jobs with $2.5 million in wages. When completed, the hotel will provide approximately 125 jobs on site.

The 48-room, aged Laie Inn was 46 years old when it was demolished in late 2009.

Group 70 is the architect for the new hotel.

“For the past year we’ve suffered along with our neighbors, packing friends and relatives into our homes when they come to visit. We all look forward to the relief of having affordable accommodations in our community again,” said R. Eric Beaver, Hawaii Reserves, Inc. president. “The replacement hotel will benefit those enjoying the Polynesian Cultural Center and visiting our community. The entire region will benefit from reinstating this important economic driver in Koolau Loa.”

It’s also important to note that a survey shows that there is support island wide for the replacement hotel; 70 percent of Oahu residents surveyed favor building the new hotel. Sentiment in the Ko‘olau Loa region is even higher at 72 percent. The survey was conducted by nationally recognized Heart+Mind Strategies in partnership with Honolulu-based Ward Research between December 8 and 17, 2010 for Envision Laie. A total of 832 Oahu residents, including 157 residents from the Koolau Loa District were polled.

The SMA “set” submitted to the City can also be downloaded on our web site.