Posted 05/02/2012
The state Board of Land and Natural Resources yesterday amended the University of Hawai`i Institute for Astronomy’s Conservation District Use Permit to construct the Advanced Technology Solar Telescope on Haleakala.
In its Minute Order No. 19, the Land Board limited construction during the contested case hearing over the permit to removal of a site known as Reber Circle and other unused facilities. The board added that any construction done before the conclusion of the contested case “is done at UHIfA’s sole risk and discretion and … shall not be a basis for a later assertion of vested rights or exclusive privilege.”
The decision, made with the concurrence of only four of the Land Board’s seven members, diverges from the board’s Minute Order No. 17, which recommended only that the permit be amended to require the university to provide 30 days notice of construction work and to give the Land Board the ability to impose conditions on construction activities.
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