Kōloa on Kaua‘i’s South Shore is a historic, rural town where single-family houses surround a hub of shops and eateries in plantation-style buildings.
So many Kōloa residents were shocked to learn that a 148-unit housing project is being proposed for nearly 9.5 acres at Weliweli and Waikomo roads in what would be the largest multifamily development in town.
The project is targeted at locals who make too much to qualify for affordable housing subsidies but don’t make enough to purchase market-rate homes. In today’s market, the one-bedroom units would start at $520,000, the two-bedroom units at $650,000 and the three-bedroom units in the high $600,000s, said Developer Mike Serpa of SK Investors LLC.
But many residents say the project is too large, will negatively alter Kōloa’s character and won’t be attainable for current residents. They’re also concerned about impacts to infrastructure and the environment.
“It will literally kill us,” Julie Souza, a fifth-generation resident of Po‘ipū with longstanding ties to Kōloa, told Civil Beat. “They’ll make a lot of money, probably, from people from afar. Our local people can’t pay that amount.”
Housing In Kōloa’s Town Core
Serpa purchased the site in 2023. He built the neighboring Kōloa Village shopping center and is currently building the 60-unit Kauhale at Kōloa Village.
The 148 units would be spread across 31 plantation-style duplex, fourplex and eightplex buildings, each two stories tall.
The project would have 226 parking stalls onsite, in addition to 25 stalls along Waikomo, Weliweli and Hapa roads. Wastewater would run through private sewer lines along Waikomo Road and connect to HOH Utilities LLC’s wastewater treatment plant.
At a Wednesday Kōloa Community Association meeting about the project, Serpa told over 100 attendees that his nearly 35-year career has focused on infill development in downtown areas.
“All cities across the world put their density in downtown and they make it walkable, so it supports the local businesses,” he said. “And if you don’t do that, then you’re reliant on visitors, you’re reliant on tourists. When I looked at this land and felt this huge responsibility, I did think I know how to do this.”
Serpa is seeking two zoning permits from the county Planning Commission to build multifamily housing, which is not automatically allowed under the South Kaua‘i Form-Based Code. The code supersedes the county’s zoning ordinance, which would normally allow six housing units per acre – up to 57 units total on the site.
Two community groups, Friends of Māhā’ulepu and Save Kōloa, have filed a petition to intervene in the Planning Commission proceeding, which will resume on Tuesday.
“It’s a small, quaint, historic plantation town, and these big developments with massive numbers of people and cars is not what that town has ever been,” Bridget Hammerquist, president of Friends of Māhā’ulepu and a Kōloa resident, said in an interview.
Worries Over Impacts to Surrounding Area
The intervenors and some other community members say that Kōloa does not have the infrastructure to support such a large project that will add hundreds of people and cars.
Laureen Naumu-Balocan, a member of the intervenor groups, said more cars mean it will be harder for residents to evacuate and for first responders to get through during emergencies. She lives behind the project site on a homestead that’s been in her family for over 100 years.
Serpa told Civil Beat he has completed a traffic impact analysis and discussed it with the county’s Planning and Public Works departments.
Nearby residents Rita Norman and Ryan Buhk are also concerned about how the development will impact runoff. Kōloa is largely built over lava rock, which helps move water out.
Both said that the neighborhood has had more problems with runoff as the town has grown. The area close to Waikomo Stream along Waikomo Road, for example, can easily fill with a foot of water during heavy rains, Norman said.
At the meeting, Serpa said he’s designing his project to be able to slow down water from a 100-year event. The property will include 12-inch-deep retention basins in grassy areas that will drain to underground pipes. From there, the water would move to basins underneath the parking areas.
“All we’re doing is slowing the water down, cleaning it and then it will go where it was going before,” he said.
Some community members say the project should be required to conduct an environmental impact statement or environmental assessment and that the project’s construction will potentially harm the underground Kōloa cave system, which is the only home of endangered species like the Kaua‘i cave wolf spider.
They also feel the project’s October 2025 Ka Pa‘akai Analysis is inadequate. The project’s analysis, conducted by Cultural Surveys Hawai‘i, determined that the project will not impact cultural resources or practices.
Ka Pa‘akai Analyses include consultations with Native Hawaiian organizations, agencies and community members. Cultural Surveys Hawai‘i reached out to 36 groups and individuals, and while it received four responses, none participated in an in-depth interview.
Serpa told Civil Beat that Cultural Surveys Hawai‘i is doing more testing on the project site to see if there are underground caves and is open to moving structures so there’s no interference with a historic rock wall that a previous study identified. He has no plans to have the Ka Pa‘akai Analysis redone.
“I am 100% confident in our Ka Pa‘akai Analysis,” he said.
‘This Is Tearing The Community Apart’
During the Wednesday meeting, Serpa told the crowd that he’s building for locals. In his Kauhale at Kōloa Village project, where one-bedrooms started at roughly $535,000, 58 of the 60 units have been sold. Forty-two of them went to buyers who were already living on Kaua‘i. Roughly 60% of buyers are in their 50s or 60s.
Some community members said residents should take advantage of that. Cheree Rapozo, a realtor who is not associated with the Kauhale or the proposed project, said that Kaua‘i needs more gap housing and Serpa’s project will help provide it. She’s a fifth-generation Kaua‘i resident and doesn’t want to see her daughters leave like so many others have.
She often works with residents who are trying to purchase their first homes. On average, they qualify for a loan of $650,000, far short of the minimum $850,000 needed to buy a house, she said. Only a couple of condo projects in Līhu‘e are within their reach, and there’s nothing on the south side.
“This is tearing the community apart,” she said at the Feb. 18 meeting. “For real, we got to meet halfway. There’s no more houses in the $650,000 range.”
In an interview, State Rep. Luke Evslin said he strongly supports the project because the island needs more homes that locals can afford. As a county councilman, he pushed for Kaua‘i housing reforms.
Kaua‘i has a habit of building either income-restricted affordable homes or luxury housing, he said. He thinks that two-story multifamily housing adjacent to the town core is consistent with Kōloa’s character.
“I think ensuring that local families can live and thrive on Kaua‘i is the only way that we can retain community character,” he wrote in a text message. “And we can’t do that if we continue to block housing from being built.”
Project Discussions Continue
The project will be discussed for the second time at the Kaua‘i Planning Commission on Tuesday. The commission first heard the proposal on Jan. 13 but held off making a decision until after asking the developer to do more community outreach.
Since that time, Serpa revised his project from 164 units to the current 148. The 16 units were removed after community members complained he was planning to develop a parcel that was not included in his permit application. Those 16 units will instead be a future phase of the project, according to Serpa’s updated application.
Kaua‘i’s Planning Director, Ka‘āina Hull, is tentatively recommending that the commission approve the project’s permit application.
In his report to the commission, he lists conditions, including incorporating the county’s construction standards for wildfire resilience and requiring that the homeowners’ association follow landscaping standards that help prevent wildfire spread.
Currently, only Kaua‘i’s five privately owned plantation camps are required to followthese wildfire resiliency measures. Kōloa has a high wildfire risk, according to the Kaua‘i Community Wildfire Protection Plan.
Some community members — including Elizabeth Okinaka of Save Kōloa — said that the project shouldn’t move forward until the community has a chance to gauge the impacts of the 60 units Serpa is building next to Kōloa Village.
“I think that’s scary,” she said. “He pitches it as it’s such a good thing for the community and he’s helping, but I think we’ll really see what it’s going to be like when that first project opens.”
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Civil Beat’s reporting on Kauaʻi is supported in part by a grant from the G. N. Wilcox Trust.
Story originally published by Honolulu Civil Beat and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.
