Above photo: Ronald Brown
When Ronald A. Brown proposed to build 20 affordable rental units on 13 acres of land off Kealaka‘a Street, in Kona, Chris Yuen, then the Hawai‘i County planning director, was willing to let bygones be bygones.
In the early 1990s, Brown had built what was then called Crazy Horse Ranch just above Palani Road. The complex consisted of 20 buildings on 10 acres of land in the state Agricultural District, where dwellings are to be permitted only when they are in support of agricultural activities on the site.
Brown contended they were all farm dwellings, but in practice, they were more like dormitories. Residents paid for private rooms with shared kitchen facilities.
In 1994, the state Land Use Commission heard a challenge to the approval of Crazy Horse Ranch, issued by one of Yuen’s predecessors. As described in that proceeding, “each of the dwelling units are three stories in height and consists of four bedrooms, six baths, five dressing room areas, two enclosed lanais, a kitchen area, a dining room, a living room, and a housekeeper room.”
At the time, Brown wrote an op-ed piece published in West Hawai‘i Today defending his project. The dwelling units, he wrote, were an alternative to sharing a typical three-bedroom, two-bath home with others, and the intended occupants were individuals wishing to live privately on a budget. Agriculture didn’t come into play at all.
The LUC, whose powers of enforcement are constrained once work has substantially commenced on a project, concluded that the Crazy Horse houses had been approved by the county without regard to state law that limits residential use of land in the Agricultural District. But it was up to the county to enforce: “The Planning Department has represented to the commission that it will enforce the agricultural use upon Ronald Brown after performing an investigation and determining his actual use of the property.”
When, in 2006, Brown floated the idea of building affordable rentals on 13 acres off Kealaka‘a Street, Yuen indicated his general support for the project in a memo to Dixie Kaetsu, the deputy mayor.
“Ron Brown does not have a good reputation (Crazy Horse and some other issues with the county),” Yuen wrote. But, he continued, “Bottom line, we are trying to get more middle-income housing built.”
Crazy Horse, now known as Hale Kaloko, continues to rent out units, which now include kitchens. Rents start at $1,400 a month.
Brown sold off Crazy Horse but continued to hold on to the Kealaka‘a acreage. By 2015, he still had not obtained permits for any buildings on the site, which had an assessed valuation of nearly $1 million.
When presented with an offer to purchase the 13 acres for $1,000 plus 46 excess housing credits, Brown took it.
In 2017, he wrote the Office of Housing, stating that, “To facilitate getting my affairs (estate) in order, I wish to sell my forty-six excess affordable housing credits…. To verify these credits you may contact Mr. Alan S. Rudo.” Rudo, Brown said, “was instrumental in the creation of a 100 percent affordable housing project which generated these excess credits.”
Not until March of 2019, however, did Brown sell off 20 credits to Hilco IP Services, which advertised them for sale at a minimum bid of $20,000 each. Hilco apparently sold just five – to Kukui Development, LLC – with Brown taking back 15 of them in October 2020, meaning he now had 41 credits.
Two months later, Brown sold all 41 to Gretchen Osgood, a Kona real estate agent.
A year later, Brown seems to have disappeared.
On February 16 of this year, the Hawai‘i County Police Department issued a missing person report on Brown, who, the notice stated, had last been seen on August 29, 2021, at 3:45 a.m., in the area of Kuakini Highway in Kailua-Kona. He continues to be missing.
— Patricia Tummons
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