Representatives from both sides of a North Shore land use debate took turns reacting to the county Planning Commission with dropped jaws, scoffs, hand-waving and head-shaking, yesterday, at the Mo‘ikeha Building.

The morning session stretched into the evening as commissioners grappled with how to handle an after-the-fact permit request for Moloa‘a Bay Ranch.

After paying $44,000 in fines and publicly apologizing, the landowner wants to keep property improvements that were illegally constructed some six years ago.

The violation was to be resolved through an amended special management area use permit for an after-the-fact portion of a pond, pumphouse and rockwall.

The commissioners formed a general consensus on what they wanted to do — restore the environmentally sensitive land to its original state — but said they needed extra time to work out the kinks on how to go about it. The decision was tabled until the commission’s next meeting in two weeks.

Aside from pulling out the structures, the commissioners got stuck on conditions in the permit that would let Moloa‘a Bay Ranch plant naupaka on the mauka side of a historic coastal trail in order to delineate the path and deter trespassing.

The landowner, part-time Kaua‘i resident Tom McCloskey, has scrapped plans to remove ironwood trees, build a perimeter fence and grade portions of the property.

“We’re going around in circles,” Moloa‘a Bay Ranch’s attorney, Bill Tam, told the commissioners.

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(Source: Nathan Eagle, Kauai Garden Island News)