Testimony of Kamakani ‘O Kohala Ohana – Kako’o

Kako’o strongly supports Resolution 106. Kako’o is a North Kohala non-profit community group of volunteers who have for over 20 years worked within the county and state laws to preserve the public, historic and open nature of our district’s coastline. It is the only long coastal stretch in our entire state that is accessible and free of development. We and many others in Kohala are dedicated to keeping it that way.

Last Wednesday, April 15, Mayor Kenoi said in a statement in West Hawaii Today of the parcels of land on the County’s list for priority purchase: “In fact, none of the properties currently designated for acquisition with the fund are being threatened with development.”

This statement is not true. Both the Pao’o and Kaiholena properties have been and are today threatened by development of large oceanfront mansions. What is keeping them from being built now is the diligence of ours and other Kohala groups to work with the land owners to bring about public purchase of the lands.

Our group fought construction of the first mansion at Pao’o in 1994-95 before the State Land Board, resulting in that board’s decision to let the permit expire. The second mansion proposed at Pao’o was subject to a protracted contested case hearing before the Land Board in 2007-08 which ended with the owner withdrawing his application for building a complex of walled structures on this recreational and historic land. We have since worked with the owner who is willling to sell the land for public preservation. However as a mainland-based professional investor he will not wait long before re-submitting plans for another residence with the State.

Kaiholena is for sale and on the MLS now. Wells have been sunk, and the original parcel subdivided into six separate parcels. Nothing is keeping the owners from selling the lots to builders of homes on land having the MOST NUMEROUS INTACT, PRE-CONTACT ARCHEOLOGICAL AND CULTURAL SITES IN THE STATE. Kohala folks as well as our group have been talking to the owners for several years now encouraging a sale of the land for public preservation.

Twenty years of working to preserve the open coast by preservation purchase of the few non-government owned land parcels will come to an end if you, the County Council which has unanimously supported purchase of these specific parcels through Resolutions 616-08 and 644-08, vote to gut the Open Space fund mandated by the voters of this county. We understand the County’s financial hard times and urge you to find solutions without destroying all the work that our community has invested in saving these lands from development and to prepare them for public purchase.

We have worked within the laws and regulations of the County to get these parcels to the top of the County’s priority list. Now we ask you to do the same.

Malama na lihikai ‘o Kohala nei