Lease-rent formula slows Kane'ohe Bay pier program
By Eloise Aguiar
Advertiser Windward Bureau
KANE'OHE — The state is heading into the last rounds of an amnesty program to bring Kane'ohe Bay piers into compliance with the law.
Later this month, the Department of Land and Natural Resources hopes to present a conservation district use application for the piers to the Board of Land and Natural Resources.
If the application is approved at a June 22 land board meeting, the lease process can begin, said Harry Yada, acting land administrator for the DLNR.
Yada said he will ask for an additional 90 days to bring more people into the program. After that, pier owners who do not take part may have to pay fines, go through the expense of obtaining their own CDUA, or pay to have the state remove the piers.
Though the process will likely cost them upwards of $10,000 each, a total of 134 of 229 pier owners contacted by the state have said they want to participate in the amnesty program.
Pier owners generally are happy with the state's 55-year lease proposal, but some still dispute the way the DLNR will calculate rent, said Roy Yanagihara, a pier owner and member of Protect Our Shoreline Ohana, a group formed to represent pier owners.
"(Some) do not believe that the formula being used by the state has any foundation in reality," Yanagihara said.
For decades, unauthorized piers — those lacking conservation district use permits — have dotted the Windward bay. The DLNR has developed a plan to bring all of the piers into compliance at the state's expense.
But while the state will incur the major cost for obtaining the conservation district use permit and thus bringing the piers into compliance, homeowners still will have costs, including obtaining a shoreline survey, about $5,000 each; document fees and a bond to cover the cost of tearing down the pier if the homeowner violates state law, said Yanagihara.
Lease rents, which don't include the above costs, will run between $5,000 and $20,000, which homeowners would pay up front as a one-time fee, Yanagihara estimated. The state wants to base lease rent on the market value of the adjoining land, he said.
Under this plan, two identical piers could have different leases if the properties they are attached to have different values.
Homeowners were told that the DLNR selected this method after researching how other states calculated their rents, Yanagihara said. Despite repeated requests for the research information, the state has not provided it to the group, he said.
"If we can verify that other states are using the methodology (they) propose, then we'll have no problem with it," he said.
Yanagihara said he and many others are ready to accept the terms, but the methodology is a stumbling block for everyone.
"I'm torn because I want to move ahead and complete this entire process, but for those who question the methodology I think we need to settle the issue once and for all," he said.
Earlier this year, a board member had questioned DLNR about fining people who signed up for the program, but Yada said fines would be counterproductive to an amnesty program.
