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From Kakaako to Koa Ridge to Koolauloa, it seems everywhere you turn these days there’s a new development springing up. Growing communities throughout the state are sparking important public land use and civic debates over everything from traffic to infrastructure to the culture and cachet of the islands.

Civil Beat has had a Land Beat reporter and dedicated Land Beat page since we launched in May 2010. That’s also been the umbrella beat for energy and environmental issues, and for the last couple years, the job of keeping up with all of the above has fallen to Sophie Cocke, our prolific and award-winning energy reporter.

Energy is clearly important in a state that suffers the highest electricity rates in the country and is moving toward a cutting-edge future with renewable power sources. Environmental coverage is also critical for these islands, which by necessity must find ways to be good stewards of the land, water and air, while cherishing our natural beauty and rich cultural history.

Since development is rapidly expanding, it is important to keep up with the effect it’s having on local people and communities but it’s also crucial to look beneath the changing skyline at the business and economic impacts, the politics of growth and the power players who are changing the face of Hawaii.

So we’ve decided to split the Land Beat into two parts — Development and Energy & Environment — and bring in another reporter to take on the Development Beat.

Anita Hofschneider may be a familiar name to many of you in the Civil Beat community.

A native of Saipan, Anita left the far-flung Marianas for college in Boston where she graduated with honors from Harvard University. She worked with us as an intern from June through December 2012, then took a temporary assignment covering the 2013 legislative session for the Associated Press. As AP’s only state Capitol reporter here, Anita got a thorough grounding in a broad range of Hawaii issues, including the demise of the Public Land Development Corporation and other sometimes controversial growth and development legislation.

Most recently Anita did a stint at the Wall Street Journal covering the millennial generation and workplace issues. But she longed to come back to the islands and we were happy to help her do that.

You can see at the top of this page that we now have a tab for Development and one for Energy & Environment. The reporters’ blogs also have been reconfigured to match.

Obviously there are many topics that spread across both journalistic beats — like agriculture and what’s happening with farm lands which also involves pesticides. This leads us to the current hot-button debate over pesticide use and genetically engineered crops. Anita and Sophie will be double-teaming on those kinds of things. The same goes for City and County of Honolulu coverage where Anita will work closely with reporter Nick Grube, especially on planning and permitting stories.

Please don’t hesitate to reach out to Nick, Sophie or Anita with any thoughts or story ideas.

Meanwhile, we’ve made a change in our Washington, D.C., bureau, too. Speaking of familiar faces, Adrienne LaFrance is back as a regular contributor. She’ll be minding the bureau for us and watching over Hawaii issues in Congress. She can be reached at alafrance@civilbeat.com and is always on the lookout for suggestions and tips.

Civil Beat is always a work in progress — some things stick, some things flop. But we’re not trapped by the traditions — and the worries — that afflict so much of the legacy media, which means that we’re not afraid to try new things.

In that spirit, you’ll see more new faces and new initiatives in the future as we fine-tune our efforts to bring you great in-depth, investigative and watchdog reporting on important community issues. We hope you continue to do your part and join the discussion.

This week we’re hosting a community discussion at Civil Beat HQ framed around civic engagement and how to get more of it especially in the Twitter Age. Our former “Beat Up” sessions have been reborn in a periodic “Civil Cafe” format, hosted by our engagement editor, Gene Park. This week, we’ve asked Randy Roth, the University of Hawaii law professor who edited “The Price of Paradise” books 20 years ago, to lead a talk about Hawaii’s notoriously laid-back attitude on some public policy issues and to brainstorm about ways to get people more engaged.

That’s Wednesday, Oct. 23 from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Some space is still available but please RSVP so we know how much coffee to make.