The fight over a proposed resort and housing complex on the Big Island’s southeast coast consumed a special meeting of the county’s Windward Planning Commission on Monday.

Some 80 people testified, mostly against the project, before the commission agreed to postpone a final vote on the contentious matter. The hearing followed a similar one in March where hundreds turned out largely to oppose the development.

Following several hours of public testimony on Monday, the commission granted standing to two citizen groups that want Black Sand Beach’s application for shoreline development approval subject to a contested case hearing, a quasi-judicial process.

Black Sand Beach is seeking a special management area permit to build 225 residential and short-term vacation units, a retail and wellness center, a seafood restaurant and other amenities at Punaluu, a culturally significant place that is home to critically endangered hawksbill sea turtles and threatened green sea turtles.

By granting standing, the commission has ordered mediation between the parties. If that fails, a contested case hearing will ensue presided over by an outside hearing officer, likely a private sector land-use attorney hired by Hawaii County. The job will soon go out for bid.

The two groups that were awarded standing are Iewe Hanau o Ka Aina and the Center for Biological Diversity. The groups have members who are lineal descendants of Punaluu who say their right to engage in customary and traditional practices in the area, such as subsistence fishing or collecting seaweed, would be hurt if the development proceeds.

The commission denied standing to a third group, representing condo owners in Punaluu, on a technicality raised by an attorney for Black Sand Beach.

Hilo-based lawyer Lincoln Ashida, representing the developer, said a property agent, instead of the chair of the condo association’s board of directors, signed the petition seeking standing, an objection the commission approved. The condo group can appeal.

In oral and written testimony, project opponents cited threats to ocean quality from an outdated wastewater system, an influx of more people, disturbance of iwi kupuna or ancestral bones, increased artificial light that could hurt threatened or endangered species and visual impacts from new structures out of character with the natural beauty of the area.

Supporters say the development would bring jobs to the high-poverty Kau district. It would also revitalize Punaluu, a spot that has fallen into some disrepair since a 1970s-era tsunami and ownership changes of the project site resulted in deferred maintenance.

The applicant proposes to rehabilitate a closed 18-hole golf course and dedicate approximately 30 acres along the project site as a conservation area. It would also remedy public health and safety concerns from the sewer system, protect endangered and threatened species, rehabilitate Kawaihuokauila Pond and restore Native Hawaiian vegetation, according to project documents.

Monday’s hearing was marked by passionate testimony from scores of Kau residents, including Donna Pabre of Ocean View who said her family traces its roots to Punaluu. Pabre said she woke up at 4:30 a.m. to attend the hearing in Hilo and vowed to fight the project “at every corner, at every junction.”

“If we don’t prevail, we will stand on the road and block you. We will call all of our people and make this another Mauna Kea,” Pabre said, referring to the controversy over the Thirty Meter Telescope project. “We have 17,000 people on the petition without even trying.”

Cattle rancher and trucker Ryan Sanborn said he neither supports nor opposes the project. There is so much development, particularly on the leeward side of the Big Island, that’s been done wrong.

He said the Mauna Lani resort near Waikoloa, for example, was built on traditional kalo patches, regrettably in his view. But development can be a “win-win” if done currently.

“Let’s look at the facts,” Sanborn said. “Let’s not be close-minded.”

Civil Beat’s coverage of environmental issues on Hawaii island is supported in part by a grant from the Dorrance Family Foundation.