{"id":11907,"date":"2019-11-01T21:07:09","date_gmt":"2019-11-01T21:07:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.environment-hawaii.org\/?p=11907"},"modified":"2020-07-02T00:44:34","modified_gmt":"2020-07-02T00:44:34","slug":"board-talk-routine-map-survey-reveals-dole-sold-state-its-own-land","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/?p=11907","title":{"rendered":"Board Talk: Routine Map Survey Reveals Dole Sold State Its Own Land"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The four parcels in yellow make up the state\u2019s new Helemano Wilderness Area, purchased from Dole Food Company last year. Credit: DLNR<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

On October 25, the state Board of Land and Natural Resources unanimously approved the acquisition of 3,716 acres of native forest owned by Dole Food Company on O\u2018ahu\u2019s North Shore for $3.716 million and authorized public hearings to add those lands to the Pupukea-Paumalu forest reserve. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A report to the Land Board by the Department of Land and Natural Resources\u2019 Division of Forestry and Wildlife (DOFAW) noted that the acquisition, once complete, will ensure that the entire ahupua\u2018a of Waimea is preserved. In 2006, the Office of Hawaiian Affairs purchased the lower portion of Waimea Valley to protect it from development. The DOFAW purchase would protect the summit area. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The latter acquisition received several letters of support from a range of entities, including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Malama Pupukea-Waimea, and the Pacific Islands Climate Change Cooperative. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dole\u2019s liquidation of its agricultural lands on O\u2018ahu over the past several years has provided the state with a huge opportunity to preserve thousands of acres for agriculture and conservation. But some of those purchases have come with a few surprises. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

During DOFAW administrator David Smith\u2019s presentation to the board on the Waimea acquisition, he mentioned that there was an outstanding issue with the state\u2019s purchase last year of 2,881 acres of Dole\nland at Helemano. He described a boundary\ndispute, with discussion among the involved\nparties going \u201cback and forth,\u201d but board\nmembers did not question him about it.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to his written report to the\nboard, a 58.54-acre parcel that was part of\nthe $15,163,800 million purchase wasn\u2019t\nDole\u2019s to sell. It actually already belonged\nto the state.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A warranty deed for the sale of the four\nparcels included in the deal was recorded\nin the Bureau of Conveyances in October\n2018. After a public hearing a couple of\nmonths later, the Land Board voted in May\nto add the Helemano lands to the \u2018Ewa\nforest reserve.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In preparing maps for the executive order\ndesignating the lands as a forest reserve,\nthe state surveyor discovered a discrepancy\nin the ownership of the 58.54-acre parcel,\nSmith\u2019s report stated. \u201cThe parcel is not a\nlot of record, but rather a remainder parcel\ncreated from the boundaries of surrounding\nparcels. It was discovered that the parcel was\nnever actually conveyed by the state and had\nremained under government ownership.\nThe Department, along with the Attorney\nGeneral, is currently working with Dole to\nresolve this matter,\u201d it continued.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s unclear how the title discrepancy was\nonly discovered after the sale. A September\n2018 DOFAW report to the Land Board\non the acquisition of the Helemano lands\nstates that the division obtained title reports\nfor the parcels \u201cfor the state\u2019s review and\napproval.\u201d\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA preliminary boundary review was conducted prior to the purchase indicating that Dole owned all four parcels of land and the boundaries of the land were accurately represented in the purchase documents. However, an irregularity was discovered after the purchase,\u201d is the only explanation DLNR staff offered in an email Environment Hawai\u2018i. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most of the money for the purchase of what DOFAW calls the Helemano Wilderness Area came from federal sources, but $2.75 million came from the Kawailoa wind farm as mitigation for take of endangered bats and a little more than $1.5 million came from the state\u2019s Land Conservation Fund. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The parcels included lands in both the\nConservation and Agricultural land use\ndistricts. Conservation lands are generally\nappraised at a lower value than agricultural\nlands, but according to property tax records,\nthe 58.54-acre parcel had an assessed value\nof only $100 since at least 2001. However,\nin the 2017 appraisal for the purchase of all four parcels, the two parcels with the potential for agricultural use and speculative investment \u2014 the 58.540-acre parcel and a 1,247.7-acre parcel \u2014 were assigned a combined fair market value of $14,890,000, which works out to $11,399 per acre. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The actual purchase price was more than\na million dollars lower than the appraised\nprice. And according to DLNR staff,\n\u201cBecause the purchase was a \u2018bulk\u2019 sale of\nall four parcels at once, the valuation was\nspread evenly over each acre.\u201d Given that,\nthe state paid about $308,000 for the 58.54-\nacre parcel.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGiven the significant public interest in acquiring the Waimea Native Forest, the Board is requested to approve the current acquisition despite the outstanding issue regarding the Helemano Wilderness Area parcel. Completing the present acquisition will not serve to waive any rights or avenues to relief that the State may have in the Helemano matter. Furthermore, the Department and the Attorney General will continue to seek resolution on that matter independently, including pursuing alternatives for relief as appropriate,\u201d the report stated. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In light of the problem with the Helemano purchase, DOFAW recommended that the Land Board require Dole to convey the Waimea lands to the state via a warranty deed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“Spanning 600 to 2,600 feet in elevation, and containing the headwaters of Kamananui and \u02bbEleh\u0101h\u0101 Streams, which flow to Waimea Bay, the Waimea Native Forest is an important recharge area and a high priority watershed for both DOFAW and the Honolulu Board of Water Supply,” the Trust for Public Land stated in its letter of support for the state’s purchase of Dole lands in Waimea.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Daniel Nellis, Dole Food Company\u2019s\ngeneral manager, testified that his company\nhad been working with the state for several\nyears on the Waimea transaction. \u201cI hope\nit goes through,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In its email to Environment Hawai\u2018i, <\/em>the DLNR\u2019s only comment on whether Dole agreed with the state\u2019s ownership assessment of the 58-acre parcel was, \u201cWe are in discussions with Dole regarding this issue.\u201d It added that the issues with the parcel do not in any way threaten the Helemano purchase and have not complicated negotiations regarding the Waimea lands. Staff only brought the issue to the board\u2019s attention in the interest of transparency, the agency stated. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lead Remediation\n<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In September 2018, when the Land Board\napproved the purchase of the Helemano\nlands, a heated discussion ensued over who\nwas going to take care of contamination\nthat had been discovered on one of the\nlarger parcels.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The contamination was the result of a\nformer Dole tenant allowing about an acre\nto be used as a firing range. Soil testing\nrevealed significant lead contamination and\nelevated antimony levels.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDole was unwilling to remediate the site prior to closing the acquisition, so TPL\u201d \u2014 the Trust for Public Land, which brokered the purchase \u2014 \u201cassumed responsibility for remediating the site post-closing and obtaining a determination of No Further Action from the Hawai\u2018i Department of Health,\u201d Smith\u2019s report stated, adding that the DOH provided a No Further Action determination on August 2. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

— Teresa Dawson<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On October 25, the state Board of Land and Natural Resources unanimously approved the acquisition of 3,716 acres of native forest owned by Dole Food Company on O‘ahu’s North Shore for $3.716 million and authorized public hearings to add those … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11908,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,460],"tags":[3],"class_list":["post-11907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-board-talk","category-november-2019","tag-teresa-dawson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11907"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11907\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}