Posted on: Thursday, December 9, 2004

UH may be fined for arboretum

By Gordon Y.K. Pang
Advertiser Capitol Bureau

The University of Hawai'i- Manoa could be fined $10,250 because of building violations at Lyon Arboretum under a recommendation being made to the Board of Land and Natural Resources.

The board is expected to vote on the recommendation of its staff at its meeting tomorrow.

Chuck Hayes, interim dean for the College of Natural Sciences, acknowledged previous mistakes made with regard to the arboretum and promised the university's full cooperation with the state board.

University officials closed the facility in August because of "significant health and safety issues endangering the well-being of the staff and general public" at the 194-acre site on conservation land at the end of Manoa Road. The arboretum serves as a vital research site for those working with endangered and rare native Hawaiian plants, and provides thousands of students and the public a place to view the plants.

The university reopened the facility in October to researchers who were worried that their projects were being jeopardized. But officials said it may take as much as $3 million and two years to make all the necessary repairs and renovations to reopen to the public.

The latest concern is the staff report and recommendation by the Department of Land and Natural Resources' Office of Conservation and Coastal Lands, which pointed out a number of structures that had been built, renovated, expanded or altered without proper authorization. Among the buildings cited were the Children's Learning Center built between 1999 and 2002, the Hong Yip Young Memorial Garden done in 1990, and a series of cottages constructed in the 1920s and then later renovated.

The report also noted that the university should have sought approval for commercial activities that had been established to support and maintain the site.

Besides the proposed fine, the staff recommended additional penalties if the university fails to comply with any part of the order or conducts further work on the parcel without the state's approval.

Hayes said Group 70, the architectural firm, was hired to plan the health and safety improvements necessary to reopen the arboretum to the public.

Both Group 70 and UH officials have been in constant contact with BLNR officials, Hayes said.

"In the past, although the purpose of the people who did things at the arboretum were positive and had the proper goal of conservation, it was not done in the proper way," Hayes said. "The university should have realized that the Department of Land and Natural Resources has the responsibility over conservation land."

Reach Gordon Y.K. Pang at gpang@honoluluadvertiser.com or at 525-8070.