A quasi-judicial hearing over a Kilauea property owner’s plan to build an upscale house on environmentally sensitive coastal land started with an all-day session yesterday at the Mo‘ikeha Building.

County Planning Commission Chair Steven Weinstein presided over the contested case, expected to resume April 1, acting as a judge while attorneys questioned witnesses ranging from building designers to archaeologists.

The commission must decide whether to approve the permits that California resident Charles Somers needs to build a proposed 8,700-square-foot single-story home, 2,600-square-foot barn and 1,400-square-foot caretaker’s cottage on a knoll overlooking Kilauea Stream. The project’s overall footprint, which includes a swimming pool and sprawling lanais, is roughly 35,000 square feet.

“I just cry for Kaua‘i and I cry for us,” Commissioner Sandi Kato-Klutke said after hearing testimony from the project’s building designer, Gary Tobey. “This is going to have a tremendous effect on that area for years to come.”

Elizabeth Freeman, a Kilauea resident with intervenor status in the case, said the narrow 162-acre strip of property should be preserved to protect endangered species, delicate ecosystems and cherished views.

Community members have been working for the past several years to secure funding to acquire the Somers parcel, also known as Kilauea Falls Ranch, for incorporation into a Congress-approved plan to expand Kilauea Point National Wildlife Refuge.

Attorney Peter Morimoto, representing Freeman, told the commission that the applicant has “a heavy burden to overcome.”

“This is not your everyday, run-of-the-mill project,” he said, noting the property is probably among the county’s most protected pieces of land under current zoning laws.

Somers, who was absent from the hearing, was represented by attorneys Bill Tam, Max Graham and an assistant.

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(Source: Nathan Eagle, Kauai Garden Island News)