It’s interesting to see music playing a role in the presidential campaign. Two recent entries. Taking it back to Barack and Les Misbarack
will cheer up your Monday morning.

A proposal to reopen the former Pat’s at Punaluu restaurant is making waves in our part of the island.

Pat’s at Punaluu is an oceanfront condominium complex in Punaluu, just 10 minutes or so up the coast from Kaaawa. The condominium converted to fee simple ownership several years ago. In the process, the Association of Apartment Owners became the fee simple owner of the former restaurant and is now attempting to obtain a variance to once again allow a restaurant to operate there.

“If we get a variance, we will be selling the property,” said Richard Knake, president of the Association of Apartment Owners of Pat’s at Punaluu.

It would then be up to the buyer to comply with city requirements and respond to community concerns.

Knake, responding to an earlier version of this post, said former legislator and GOP gubernatorial candidate D.G. “Andy” Anderson, is interested in purchasing and operating the restaurant, but that he is not directly involved in the variance request now being considered. He clarified that it is the owners association that has applied for the variance. An earlier version of this post incorrectly reported that the variance request had been submitted by Anderson.

Following a meeting earlier this month, the Punaluu Community Association declined to support the project because the AOAO did not provide details concerning the restaurant, including its size, configuration, design, capacity, parking, wastewater system, types of events to be held there, etc.

The community association was shown “conceptual” illustrations that don’t reflect what might eventually be built, and the presentation didn’t address other key issues, according to several people present.

But Knake said it is too early for specific project plans because they are not required by the city at this stage of the process.

“Those questions are not pertinent at this time,” Knake said. “At this time, the question is whether we can get a variance to restart the restaurant or not.”

“You wouldn’t pay an architect to design a new oceanfront house without first finding out whether the lot was buildable,” he said. Knake estimated Anderson or another buyer could face $250,000 in engineering fees to proceed with the project if the requested variance is approved.

Knake argued that questions about project details should properly be deferred and be considered once shoreline and other permits are applied for.

“You can have all your input then, and you can determine if you support or not,” he said. “But you don’t start that process until you first find out if any restaurant will be allowed.”

Knake said the owners association has “done everything by the book”.

“We were looking out for the best interests of the community,” he said.

Knake said the project had been presented to the Punaluu Community Association “as a courtesy” and that the meeting was not required by law.

However, according to a report on the restaurant project emailed to condo owners and posted on the Pat’s at Punaluu web site: “One of the requirements of the zoning variance is obtaining approval from the Punalu’u Community Association and Koolauloa Neighborhood Board for our restaurant plans.”

Knake also discounted concerns about the condominium’s wastewater system.

Pat’s at Punaluu relies on a system of 8 injection wells to handle sewage, which after some processing is injected into the ground. From that oceanfront location, it is possible that sewage eventually spreads out and enters the ocean.

Several people close to the situation said the system of injection wells on the property would not be allowed under current environmental laws, but are “grandfathered” in under prior regulations.

But Knake blamed a former employee for prior problems with the sewage plant and said “the problems are gone.”

“It is in compliance with current regulations and functions just as well as any sewage plant in the islands,” Knake said, adding that a consultant hired by the owners association certified that it is in compliance with current standards.

A July 2002 notice from the State Department of Health, also posted at the Pat’s at Punaluu web site, points to the environmental dangers posed by the injection wells and urges all residents at Pat’s at Punaluu to “minimize the use of water”.

The less water sent down the toilets and drains results in less wastewater being discharged into the injection wells, and the environment.

It also asked residents to avoid environmentally harmful cleaning products because of the very real danger that the chemicals will spread from the injection well system into the immediate environment.

Knake is urging all apartment owners and residents to support the restaurant proposal and asked them to circulate petitions to be presented at the next Koolauloa Neighborhood Board meeting.

For some, there’s nostalgia about the old days.

One owner recently wrote me:

I am a supporter of ‘Keeping the Country, Country’, but I feel that squelching the revival of Pat’s at Punalu`u Restaurant is a mistake for the entire area. I have wonderful memories of my parents taking my sister and I to Pat’s for beautiful drive out to the country and a great lunch on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon. I think it would be beneficial for the community by way of providing jobs in an area that has so few jobs for its residents. We have so few choices out this way for dining.

But Punaluu community leaders point out that few of the apartment owners live in their units or in the immediate area and may not be overly concerned about the restaurant’s potential community impacts.

The issue is expected to be on the agenda of the Koolauloa Neighborhood Board when it meets on October 9.