honoluluadvertiser.com

Sponsored by:

Comment, blog & share photos

Log in | Become a member
The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Friday, August 19, 2005

Waiahole ag park told it can be self-managing

By Eloise Aguiar
Advertiser Windward O'ahu Writer

spacer

Eight months after deciding to transfer the Waiahole agriculture park to the state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, the board for housing and community development has reversed itself and suggested that the community should work toward self-management.

With more than 60 people packed into the hearing room yesterday, five board members of the state Housing and Community Development Corp. of Hawai'i voted to retain jurisdiction over the Waiahole Valley Agricultural Park and Residential Lots Subdivision.

The decision came with the recommendation that HCDCH and the community create a joint committee to resolve problems in the valleys and consider how leaseholders manage the land.

"Can you see a time when the valley might be self-managing?" asked board member Linda Smith, who later recommended that the community explore the option.

Waiahole and Waikane residents applauded the decision and brought the meeting to a halt as people thanked the board and congratulated each other in what they called a victory for agriculture and their rural lifestyle.

Having the board suggest that the valley might become self-managing took residents by surprise. But farmer Richard Garcia saw it as something lease-holders would embrace.

"Whenever you give people the option to determine their future, they will take the initiative," Garcia said. "This is a community that works together. ... Something like self-determination — it should be top priority."

Garcia said the community and the agency have had an adversarial relationship and he would like to see that set aside.

In December, the HCDCH board approved a transfer of four subdivisions under its control, including Waiahole, to Hawaiian Home Lands.

HCDCH has said that it wasn't best suited to manage Waiahole and Waikane valleys and that Hawaiian Home Lands, with its resources and managing experience with agriculture and house lots, might be a better manager.

But residents feared that the transfer would jeopardize their leases, squeeze out families who have lived there for decades, and turn the valley into urban development.

In the 1970s, developers wanted to turn the area into an urban subdivision with a golf course. But farmers and leaseholders rebelled until then-Gov. George Ariyoshi had the state purchase the land for $6 million to ensure that it remained in agriculture.

Stephanie Aveiro, executive director of HCDCH, said she would take advantage of the offer to form a joint committee to work closer with the community. Aveiro said she now has a better understanding of the community and its vision.

"It was truly with a lack of understanding on my part about that mission and that vision that was started 30 years ago," she said.

David Chinen, president of the Waiahole Waikane Community Association, said he hopes that HCDCH will work with leaseholders on other issues, as it has done recently to help residents obtain mortgages.

"You know what's really been lacking — sitting down together and talking about issues and talking about problems," Chinen said."

Reach Eloise Aguiar at eaguiar@honoluluadvertiser.com.