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WAILUKU - Dirt blew into houses and settled.

Vibrations rattled homes and occupants, knocking vases from shelves and pictures from walls.

Boundary walls were knocked down. Cracks began appearing in walls, floors and ceilings.

As dirt was hauled in by the truckloads and compacted to fill a gully and raise elevations at the Fairways at Maui Lani project from 2006 to 2008, many nearby homeowners said they didn't complain about the damage to their properties from the construction that was transforming their quiet neighborhood.

And those who did talk to a representative of developer VP&PK (ML) LLC testified they were promised repairs that never materialized.

"Every now and then I think about it and I get mad," said 88-year-old Clark Nakamoto, who has lived on Kea Street in Kahului since 1967.

He is among 16 homeowners, most living in older homes adjoining the residential development, who are seeking damages from developer and general contractor Kila Kila Builders in a trial under way in 2nd Circuit Court.

Over the past three weeks, the homeowners have testified to support their claims for nuisance, trespass and infliction of emotional distress.

"It's the noise; it's the anxiety; it's the vibration," said Reyn Tateyama, responding to attorney David Gierlach's question about how the nearby development has affected him. "It's hard."

In opening statements to jurors Aug. 11, VP&PK attorney George Playdon said project manager Mike Pullman "went to every single property owner" and asked residents to call him if there were any problems from the construction.

Yet some of those testifying said they never met Pullman.

Playdon also said a Maui County inspector and a court-appointed contractor who visited the construction site reported no dust-control violations. And he said an engineer hired to measure the vibrations determined it wasn't possible that they damaged the residents' homes.

Although Kila Kila lawyer Robert Richards said the wind carried dust away from neighboring homes, Nakamoto and others said trade winds blew the dirt toward their houses, staining outside walls, and permeating drapes and carpets.

When tractor-trailers filled with dirt began rumbling all day long past his house next to the entrance to the 13-acre project site, Nakamoto said, dirt from the uncovered trucks blew toward his house, getting inside even when he closed his windows and doors. "I used to clean house every day, but after a while I gave up," he testified. "I'm asthmatic. Dust is not good for me. I had to take medication every day after a while."

He said laborers would eat lunch and rest in his backyard and use his waterpipe. He noticed that mangoes and oranges disappeared from his trees. "I went to speak with them, but they kept on telling me they don't understand English," Nakamoto said. "They were using my water, cleaning their clothes."

On Palama Drive, adjacent to the development, Tateyama said bulldozers smashed walls and destroyed a backyard garden planted by his father, who died in 2003.

Workers had lunch in his hothouse, moving plants and leaving behind large rocks, water bottles, beer bottles and debris, Tateyama said. He said workers also took his father's poles from his property to use in the construction behind his house, where he has lived since 1978.

He said he called Pullman to ask for help because his backyard was caving into a 30-foot drop excavated as part of the development. "He said they're not supposed to be using the things in my property and my personal belongings and they were going to come and replace it," Tateyama said.

That never happened, Tateyama said.

Inside his house, 20 vases that had belonged to his grandmother were broken after falling when vibrations shook his house, he said. He put away other items with sentimental value so they wouldn't be destroyed.

Tateyama said he spent $5,000 to replace dirt-infused carpets and drapes. His living room ceiling has separated about a half-inch from the wall, he said, and cracks have appeared in the front of his house.

Since 2007, when he also was injured in a car accident, Tateyama said he has taken medication for anxiety.

Gierlach said 200,800 tons of dirt were transported in 8,000 tractor-trailer loads to the construction site to turn a valley of kiawe trees into a mountain of dirt.

Palama Drive resident Karen Goo became aware of the construction in early 2006, noticing how windows rattled while she was home recovering from major surgery.

She found interior and exterior cracks on her house.

And after construction began on a drainage swale that was supposed to carry away water and prevent flooding on Palama Drive, she photographed flooding in December 2007 that left muddy water covering the roadway within 20 minutes.

Before, "it would flood, but it wouldn't flood this fast and we wouldn't have this kind of muddy, dirty water," Goo said.

Of the development, she said: "It's taken away clean air. It's taken away the peace."

Amber Torricer Paz, who owns the house on adjoining Palama Drive where she grew up and where her mother still lives, said the family no longer uses a back patio because of the dust.

"We could see open woods," she said, recalling the days before the development. "Now there's just a solid brick wall."

No houses have been built in the Fairways project.

In a separate lawsuit brought by the residents against Maui County, 2nd Circuit Judge Joel August in January ordered the county not to issue building permits that conflict with the 1991 building height ordinance. That law limits residential building heights to 30 feet above the natural or finished grade, whichever is lower.

August ruled that former Mayor Alan Arakawa exceeded his authority when he exempted the Fairways and New Sand Hills developments from the height ordinance, allowing the projects to proceed under the law that existed before 1991 and measured height from the finished grade.

Starting in March 2006, Palama Drive resident Adrienne Owens kept a log describing the construction activity, including shaking from vibrations that continued seven days a week. "We couldn't watch television unless we put it on for the hearing-impaired," she said.

Although she didn't see any damage after the Oct. 15, 2006, earthquakes, Owens said that the next day her back boundary wall was "undermined" when rain fell on a 30-foot-high mound of uncompacted dirt in the development, causing runoff that felled a project wall next to her wall.

She said she photographed workers who intruded onto her property without asking, at times parking or running heavy equipment through her property.

Owens' log continued for 45 pages into 2008 as she noted cracks in her floor and walls, as well as continuing dirt, noise and vibrations.

The plaintiffs ended their side of the case Tuesday afternoon. The defendants are now calling their witnesses. August is presiding over the trial that began Aug. 10 and said last week that he hopes to have the jury deliberating in the case by this week.

* Lila Fujimoto can be reached at lfujimoto@mauinews.com.