AUKU'U LAND CONSULTING: Your New, Smart-Growth Approach to Land
OUR PURPOSE:
Auku'u Land Consulting works with private landowners, government and non-profit organizations. We believe in Smart Growth and conservation land planning that keeps the needs of community and private investment in mind. We can help you to purchase properties that can give you tax relief, offer a place in nature for retreat and vacation homes as well as sensible estate planning, while you "kokua the aina" (help the land).
FAMILY BUSINESS BIOS:
Auku'u Land Consulting is a rural Hawaii land planning, sales, management, and consulting firm.
Hugh Starr, its founder, has worked with nearly every facet of the rural land industry in Hawaii for over 35 years. Born in the Islands, most of his youth was spent in Outer Island ranching communities on the Big Island, Maui, and Moloka'i. He went on to New York's Cornell University to complete studies in Agricultural Economics and Animal Husbandry, returning to the Islands to work for a Maui ranch in 1968. He obtained his real estate license in 1971.
Erin Starr (BA, Cornell University/MFA, University of California), Hugh's college sweetheart and wife, manages the business affairs of the company. She obtained her real estate license in 1971.
Auku'u Land Consulting currently works with individual small landowners as well as with a number of Maui's largest ranch landowners, trusts and estates. The work encompasses:
· long-range holistic land planning
· low-scale development consulting
· family land planning
· use of land preservation tools such as conservation easements and donations
· cost-effective ditigal map and aerial exhibit preparation
· agriculture/water/recreational planning
· feasibility studies & investment assessments
· mediation and negotiation in land matters
· community/government interface collaboration
· liaison work with client attorneys
Auku'u Land Consulting's guiding philosophy is to foster long-term land stewardship for the proverbial seventh-generation; we strive through our work to protect & preserve those elements of Hawaii's environment and culture that make these Islands so unique on our planet Earth. We recognize & accept the far-reaching demands that growing and migrating human populations make on our natural resources. These are resources that extend from high elevation rain forests to near-shore ocean waters, all delicate and vulnerable ecosystems.
We believe in common sense collaboration, inclusive of community, commerce, & government.
We believe future growth in Hawaii's rural areas must be constructively & consciously balanced with persistent support and nurturance of our glorious natural and agricultural open spaces. We believe that effective tools for accomplishing these ambitions are readily available to us. At 'Auku'u Consulting we believe we accomplish these aspirations intentionally through inclusive holistic land planning.
SYMBOLISM OF OUR LOGO:
Our namesake, the 'Auku'u, is a non-migratory land bird known also as the Black-Crowned Night Heron. While found in many other locations on Earth, the 'Auku'u is native to Hawaii, and is by nature solitary & independent; she is observed in the water realms: along the banks of a remote mountain stream, amongst the protective grasses of a coastal wetland estuary, atop an emerging shoreline reef, at the edges of a traditional valley taro pond-field. The 'Auku'u has a subtle yet powerful presence, a power that does not go unnoticed by those who frequent the quiet places. At first glance she might appear unimpressive -- but move slowly closer and observe: she has piercing volcanic-orange eyes, thick ebony beak, Zen-like bearing.
The 'Auku'u is symbolic of our love of, and need for, remote and peaceful places; of our sense of free-spirited creativity and focus in the professional realms; of our commitment to the power of persistent and vigilant guardianship of our precious resources.
