Posted on: Monday, December 29, 2003

Trust to receive title to 4.3 acres of Maui coast

Associated Press

The Maui Coastal Land Trust will become the custodian and owner of 4.3 acres of prime bodysurfing beach at Mokuleia Bay at no cost under an agreement with Maui Land & Pineapple Co.

Meanwhile, Maui Land & Pineapple says it is close to reaching an agreement to sell a 6.5-acre lot of conservation land next door at Kalaepiha Point.

The parcels are part of 20.3 acres of land in the area that Maui Land & Pineapple officials had sought to unload since July 2002.

The remaining acreage, a strip on either side of Honolua Stream, will stay in Maui Land & Pineapple ownership, but the company has no intentions of doing anything with it.

Both Mokuleia and Honolua bays are state Marine Life Conservation districts and the company probably would have been prohibited from using the property for commercial purposes.

Dale Bonar, executive director of the Maui Coastal Land Trust, declined to discuss what the trust has planned for the land.

The deal has not yet closed for the Kalaepiha Point land, officials said.

The buyer, Bill Nguyen, has begun the process to obtain the proper permits to build a single-family house on the conservation land, which is allowed.