WATCH: Landmark new county law strengthens wildfire resilience on Kaua‘i

Kaua‘i County Mayor Derek Kawakami signed Bill 2961 last month, making it Hawai‘i’s first law directly incorporating wildland urban interface safety standards into county zoning and permitting for Kaua‘i’s plantation-camp districts.

The landmark law aims to strengthen wildfire resilience throughout these Garden Island rural neighborhoods, helping better protect homes, families and communities from future fire risks.

Kaua‘i has 5 historic plantation camps — with the oldest dating back to the 1930s, almost 100 years.

These cherished communities now face an ever-growing risk of wildfire.

“Hawai‘i’s historic plantation camps represent a distinctive and resilient form of community living,” said Kawakami in a video produced by Kaua‘i County that highlights how the new county code transforms wildfire prevention into everyday practice. “These built environments offer affordable housing with compact lots, homes oriented to the public realm and shared roadways where kūpuna and keiki take precedent over the automobile.”

The mayor added that plantation camps provide a welcome alternative to the sprawling subdivisions and strip mall development patterns that have dominated for the past several decades.

Kaua‘i County Planning Director Ka‘aina Hull said in the video that the county spent about a year to year and a half working with wildfire experts, Kaua‘i Fire Department and Kaua‘i Emergency Management Agency officials as well as Hawai‘i Wildfire Management Organization personnel to craft a reasonable approach — “one that can mitigate future wildfire impacts on the plantation camps themselves.”

Bill 2961 was born from that collaboration, and is just the beginning of building wildfire resilience around Kaua‘i.

The new county code MANDATES THE FOLLOWING GUIDELINES for new or substantially remodeled buildings within plantation-camp districts:

• Home hardening requirements to mitigate ember intrusion.
• Incorporate a 5-foot noncombustible zone around homes.
• Defensible space up to 30 feet around homes.
• Maintain low vegetation out to 100 feet.

It also highlights active partnerships between Kaua‘i County, Hawai‘i Wildfire Management Organization and Headwaters Economics coupled with the county’s commitment to education-first enforcement and the shared goal of protecting lives, homes and cultural landscapes around the island.

“Now is the time to start planning better for wildfires knowing that they’re going to come in the future and that communities can be better prepared before the next wildfire becomes a disaster,” said Headwaters Economics Sr. Policy Analyst Kimiko Barrett in the video.

“And it gives us a model to start thinking through how do we address risks and reduce hazards and build safe from the start in other areas that also have high risk,” added Hawai‘i Wildfire Management Organization Co-Executive Director Elizabeth Pickett in the video.

Pickett added that Kaua‘i County’s new law truly is a milestone moment for wildfire safety in Hawai‘i.

“Kaua‘i’s commitment and the strong partnerships behind this effort reflect a deep sense of kuleana — a shared responsibility to protect our people and places from wildfire,” she said in a county press release about the new law.

News reporter Nathan Christophel contributed to this story.