State Parks Division to Investigate Future of Cabins at Koke’e, Kaua’i
In three years, all of the state leases for the old cabins in Koke’e will end. Whether they will continue to be leased for 20-year terms, be turned into vacation rentals for weekenders and tourists, or serve a combination of both ends will depend on what the Department of Land and Natural Resources’ Division of State Parks finds in its investigation of impacts of a proposed master plan for Koke’e and Waimea Canyon.
The cabins (also called recreation residences) are spread throughout Koke’e, Halemanu Valley, and Pu’u Ka Pele subdivisions, but are collectively known as the Koke’e cabins. In 1985, the state auctioned off 112 20-year leases; 105 of those leases remain. With the lease term ending soon, many lessees (some of which have leases going back for generations) are worried about their future tenure there. Under state law, all public lands must be disposed of at public auction. And under the current leases, all improvements on the properties revert to the state when the leases end.
According to a State Parks report, “now there are dissenting views from some of the leaseholders that want to continue their tenure on the property, and/or get some compensation for the cabins on the lots.”
So last month, when State Parks floated a proposal before the Land Board to turn cabin management over to one entity via a master lease with the intent that those cabins would be rented out several members of the public raised concerns about intensified use of the area and the potential loss of a valuable, historic community, among other issues.
Koke’e lessee Charles Wichman stated in written testimony that the lessees “provide budget-relieving services to the state through volunteer labor and supplying of materials toward (1) badly needed improvements of run-down state facilities, (2) they help to keep trails clears and opened and (3) help with existing eradication of alien species and reintroduction of native species programs now being conducted through Hui ‘O Laka [a nonprofit that runs the Koke’e museum]. The leaseholders also provide food and assistance in reuniting lost hunting dogs with their owners. And finally, they provide a much-needed service to the public and the state in emergency situations.”
Paul Matsunaga, vice-president of the Koke’e Leaseholders Association, wrote that the number of visitors at Koke’e and Waimea parks didn’t warrant adding 100 cabins to the 12 units currently managed as rental units. While Matsunaga believed a small increase in short-term rentals is needed, he felt remodeling costs, rental rates and other issues associated with conversion needed further study.
Koke’e lessee John Plews laid out some of those issues in his testimony, noting that while some cabins are on the electric grid, many rely on gas or kerosene for light, cooking and hot water. Some of them are on a state water line; others depend on springs, streams or catchment. “Many,” he said, “have road access problems in wet weather.”
In response to these any many other public comments, State Parks revised its recommendations to the Land Board at its November 4 meeting. In approving those new recommendations, the Land Board directed the division to merely focus on the idea of issuing a master lease for Koke’e’s 105 “recreation residences” in its planning and environmental review processes and financial feasibility study. State Parks was also to solicit letters of interest from potential master lessees.
In addition, the board approved a recommendation that the cabins not be converted into daily rental units for weekenders and tourists at least not until State Parks gathers more information how a master lease and other proposed measures could affect life at Koke’e. How the DLNR would dispose of future cabin leases be it through direct negotiation or public auction would be determined after State Parks reported to the Land Board on its environmental impact statement and other findings.
Finally, the board voted to approve several specific objectives laid out in a broader State Parks’ proposal for the 6,211 acres that make up Koke’e and Waimea Canyon state parks. The objectives under the plan are as follows:
- Achieve sustainable operations with 35 percent of park revenues;
- Upgrade existing park facilities such as trail and access roads with improvements to and if appropriate an increase in the number of lookouts;
- Develop design guidelines to protect the historic value and rustic character of the cabins and other park structures;
- Enhance park identity and visitor orientation through interpretive and directional signs;
- Renovate or repair utilities and infrastructure; and
- Establish revenue enhancement programs, such as an entrance fee.
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License, Easement Granted For ‘Ewa Marina Channel
Haseko, Inc., developer of the 1,100-acre, master-planned community in ‘Ewa known as Ocean Pointe, has been granted by the Land Board a land license to dredge sand and coral from about 28 acres of ocean floor in Honouli’uli and a perpetual easement to construct, use and maintain the channel, which will connect a manmade marina to the open ocean.
The Land Board’s action comes a decade after Haseko first filed a Conservation District Use Application to construct the channel. A contested case focusing on native Hawaiian rights and the public trust, and involving the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Save Ewa Beach ‘Ohana, and individuals Jeff Alexander and Anna Marine Kahunahana Castro-Howell followed, eventually leading to Circuit Court and Supreme Court appeals regarding a December 1994 Land Board decision to grant Haseko’s permit.
On April 26, 2000, the Land Board issued a final order, again approving the Conservation District Use Permit. Last February, Haseko applied for a land license to construct the channel, which Land Division staff recommended the Land Board approve. The division also recommended that, like the lagoons at Ko ‘Olina and the entrance channel at the Hawai’i Kai Marina, Haseko’s channel should be required to obtain an easement.
At its November 4 meeting, the Land Board approved both the license and the easement, the fair market cost of which will be determined by independent appraisal and approved by the Land Board chair.
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Erosion May Force DOT To Relocate Maui Highway
There shouldn’t be a next time. Move the road.” Kaua’i Land Board member Lynn McCrory to Department of Transportation consultant Alan Tomita, October 2003.
More than three years ago, the Land Board approved the issuance of a Conservation District Use Permit to the Department of Transportation for a rock revetment at Launiupoko along Honoapi’ilani Highway, the coastal road linking West Maui to the rest of the island.
For years, the DOT had wanted to harden that stretch of coast, which, it felt, was in imminent danger of collapsing into the sea. At the same time, however, the Department of Land and Natural Resources and the Land Board had been working to discourage and even penalize shoreline hardening, which exacerbates erosion.
At the time the permit was being considered, then-Land Board chair Tim Johns voiced frustration at being forced to choose between protecting natural resources and public safety. But with staff assurances that that the beach resources in the area were not “of superior quality,” and that the permit would require DOT to propose a long-term solution (i.e., highway relocation), the Land Board decided to grant the permit.
Fast forward to October 2003: The DOT’s rock revetment at Launiupoko still had not been built; there was no long-term plan to prevent future shoreline hardening along Honoapi’ilani, and the DOT was asking the Land Board for another CDUP, this time, for work already done at a scarp along Honoapi’ilani Highway at Olowalu.
In July 2001, high surf swept away about 40 feet of the highway’s shoulder. Right away, a DOT crew fired up its dump trucks and backhoes and placed boulders into the hole to stem the erosion.
That September, former DLNR administrator Gilbert Coloma-Agaran granted permission to undertake emergency measures. Since then, the DOT has filled spaces between the boulders with river rocks. Atop the leveled rock, the DOT placed about 200 feet of concrete barriers along the shoulder of the highway.
As a condition of the emergency authorization, the DOT submitted a Conservation District Use Application. But at the Land Board’s October 24 meeting Office of Conservation and Coastal Lands planner Sam Lemmo told the board that when his staff first found out about the work, “We were not happy about it at all. Apparently, the person who authorized the work was not an administrator and they just went ahead and did it. They felt it was necessary. When I talked to them, I said, ‘All you had to do was call us, inform us, let us know what you were doing. We could have worked it out.’ And they chose not to. It was a very disturbing kind of scenario for us so we berated them pretty heavily.”
Because of the health and safety issues, however, Lemmo said he didn’t feel he could order DOT to remove the boulders. Instead, his staff and Maui County have been lobbying for DOT to relocate the highway, and, he noted, the CDUP would again suggest the DOT do so.
Since Honoapi’ilani highway is constantly subject to coastal hazards, “Rather than dump money into shoring the thing up periodically, they ought to just bite the bullet and relocate the highway. Now’s the time to do it; the land is undeveloped,” Lemmo said.
Johns, now an at-large Land Board member, was not so sure the CDUP should be granted. When DOT sought a CDUP for Launiupoko, “Didn’t they get chastised here on the whole idea that we’re making private individuals take out things like this? We’re in a contested case right now [with a private landowner] We’re not going to hold ourselves the state to the same standards that we’re requiring private individuals to with regard to shoreline hardening?” he asked.
He wondered if telling the DOT to remove the boulders would raise relocation higher on the department’s list of priorities. But Maui Land Board member Ted Yamamura countered that imposing such a condition without funds to move the highway would be meaningless.
Alan Tomita, a representative of DOT ‘s contractor, told the Land Board, “I think the message that has gotten across to DOT -Maui, especially, is that the next time there is an erosion problem … they should at least make that phone call.”
To which, Johns said, “Making a phone call is not enough If anybody has the ability to move the road, it’s DOT . If anybody has the ability to solve this the right way, it should be the state.”
Despite its misgivings about approving an illegally placed shoreline hardening project, the Land Board approved the permit. To ensure DOT was clear on the board’s disapproval of future incidents, the board added conditions that a DOT -Highways representative report back to the Land Board in 90 days on long-term plans for the highway, with relocation being given priority.
Ka’anapali Vendor Loses Permits
Two commercial permits held by Ka’anapali vendor David Flavin have been terminated by a Second Circuit Court order. Last month, Environment Hawai’i reported that Flavin had chosen to fight a recommendation by the DLNR’s Division of Boating and Ocean Recreation to terminate the permits, as a result of Flavin’s alleged use of bleach while cleaning his water trampolines at Ka’anapali Beach. Such use is a violation of state clean water laws. At the October 10 Land Board meeting, Flavin requested a contested case.
After the board meeting, however, DOBOR was informed that Second Circuit Judge Joseph E. Cardoza had already terminated Flavin’s DOBOR permits pursuant to an August 18 judgment entered in a civil suit filed against Flavin and his companies by Charles Fox and Anthony and Susan Ligara.
Judge Cardoza found that Flavin was illegally soliciting beach rentals on Ka’anapali Beach, anchoring trampolines closer than 200 feet from shore and within a designated ingress/egress corridor, and storing his property on the beach. As these activities violated DLNR and DOBOR rules, Cardoza ordered Flavin, his employees, and agents to cease and desist their activities (including those under DOBOR’s commercial operating area use permits to Flavin’s Wild Thang Beach Rentals and Wild Thang Water Toys) and obtain a Conservation District Use Permit and a commercial activities permit from the Land Board.
At its November 4 meeting, the Land Board terminated its action regarding Flavin’s DOBOR permits.
— Teresa Dawson
Volume 14, Number 6 December 2003