Letter to the Editor, or writer of article, Matt Villano

I recently read your article about David Cole the CEO of Maui Land and
Pineapple. I live here on Maui and have heard nothing of his plans to
turn sugar into an energy source. The current big news here on Maui
involving David Cole and MLP is that they want to destroy one of the
most naturally beautiful spots on our island by building yet another
golf course, this one happens to be above a marine preserve and world
class surf spot (Honolua Bay). This company also had plans to build
40 luxury homes on the mountain side of the road which will create a
lot of runoff that will kill our reefs. They also wanted to build a
cultural center at the valley floor, however, they had to try and
quiet title the land away from families that currently live there.
(Quiet title is a shamefully legal form of land stealing that occurs
in Hawaii.) They tried to have these plans for development on nearly
600 acres of land included into our communities general plan by
attempting to donate a 6.5 acre strip of land where surfers currently
park to the county, so that it appears to benefit our community. Upon
hearing of these plans, concerned members of our community formed the
"SAVE HONOLUA COALITION--www.savehonolua.org" in February of this
year. To date we have over 8,000 petitions signed urging the county
to acquire these lands, which we believe to have great cultural,
historical & recreational significance, away from those who would
develop and destroy the natural beauty. So I just wanted to let you
folks in on the real story going on here in Maui and maybe you can do
an aricle on this.