Cultural and environmental groups are seeking a contested case hearing on the Mauna Kea Comprehensive Management Plan and will plead their case tomorrow before the state Board of Land and Natural Resources at its meeting in Honolulu.

The plan, prepared by the University of Hawai'i, was approved in April subject to eight conditions, including submitting four additional plans: on cultural resource management, natural resources management, decommissioning of equipment and public access.

Mauna Kea Anaina Hou, The Sierra Club-Hawaii, The Royal Order of Kamehameha I, KAHEA: The Hawaiian Environmental Alliance, Dwight J. Vincente and Clarence Kukauakahi Ching have submitted a request for a contested case hearing on the plan.

Robert Harris, executive director of the Sierra Club, said that after the plan was approved in April Mauna Kea was chosen for a $1.2 billion Thirty Meter Telescope project.

"Our position is we're not sure you should be approving new telescopes until this comprehensive management plan is finalized," Harris said. "If you are going to call this a comprehensive management plan, I think you're going to have to take into account future development and this plan specifically doesn't address any development whatsoever."

Department of Land and Natural Resources staff are recommending against a contested case hearing, saying there are no laws or rules requiring one because of the board's approval of the plan and that the petitioners have no property interest in the project.

"The (comprehensive management plan) does not permit or authorize any new land use of development on Mauna Kea, including telescope projects," the recommendation said.

Marti Townsend, program director for KAHEA, said there is a public interest in the protection of public trust resources. More time is needed to develop the plan and get public input, she said.

The DLNR says the acceptance of the plan doesn't facilitate new construction but Townsend said she thinks it does, especially in light of the recent announcement of the Thirty Meter Telescope project.

"That was our concern all along — that we're rushing through the management plan process in order to accommodate the TMT and so it's really a development plan," Townsend said.