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Both the aging plantation homes and surviving “tenants of record” at former Oahu Sugar plantation settlement Varona Village are nearly 30 years older, but a plan to redevelop the 24 acres and transfer ownership of homes to tenants has been revived.
The effort has languished since the mid-1990s, sidetracked in part by housing official Michael Kahapea’s grift of $5.6 million from Honolulu housing funds and the ensuing dissolution of the city Department of Housing and Community Development. In 2013, a Honolulu City Council working group began inching forward on the project again — and on Tuesday, Mayor Rick Blangiardi announced it would go forward.
