Posted on: Thursday, July 29, 2004
Trust to buy Maui parcel
By Vicki Viotti
Advertiser Staff Writer
A nonprofit organization has decided to borrow the $4 million needed to buy a 70-acre parcel at Mu'olea Point prized by the Hana community for its historic sites and natural resources.
The loan was secured to meet a Saturday purchase deadline set by the current land owner, Hanahuli Association Ltd.
The nonprofit Trust for Public Land will be able to repay that loan once all the pieces of the purchase puzzle fall into place, including a federal grant and money from Maui County and the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, said Joshua Stanbro, project manager of the organization's Hawai'i field office.
He was speaking yesterday to an OHA committee, which narrowly voted to allot OHA's $342,000 share of the price for the land, situated on the coast between Hana and Kipahulu. OHA will make its final decision on that allotment next Thursday, two days after the county council is due to approve its own $1 million share.
Stanbro told the committee that the largest single chunk of cash is a $2 million federal grant that has been approved. But the grant, which comes from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Coastal and Estuarine Land Conservation Program, must be officially accepted by the Maui council at its Tuesday meeting, he said.
The trust has been working with community groups that would serve as stewards of the land, Stanbro said. But the federal grant required that a government agency hold the land, so title of the land will transfer to the county, he said.
"Why should we help the county buy land that will not be ours?" said Akana. "It's not OHA's problem that the people of that area want to preserve this land.
"To come to OHA because we're the fast track to the fast buck and we have deep pockets is absolutely ridiculous. I don't think it's our kuleana."
However, other trustees said another buyer waiting in the wings would otherwise snap up the land, dashing hopes of preserving the historic sites.
King Kalakaua maintained a summer home at Mu'olea until his death in 1891. It was then passed to Queen Lili'uokalani, his sister.
Archaeological features include remnants of a fishing village and a heiau. Natural resources include native goby fish, or 'o'opu, as well as shrimp, or 'opae, in Ala'alaula Stream. The land is now being used for pasture, but rural zoning could bring development of up to 140 homes.
Reach Vicki Viotti at vviotti@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8053.
That point irritated some OHA trustees. Linda Dela Cruz wasn't convinced that the expenditure benefited enough Hawaiians, and Rowena Akana said the OHA trust expenditures on land should be on outright purchases, not contributions such as the Mu'olea deal.
Rowena Akana
