The Department of Land and Natural Resources is still trying to figure out what to do with the revocable permit that the Kaneohe Yacht Club in Windawrd Oahu has held since 1977. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tThe agency has resolved in recent years to convert, where appropriate, revocable permits to a long-term disposition, be it an easement or a lease. And in 2016, a department task force identified the yacht club\u2019s permit as one that should be converted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On January 11, 2019, the DLNR\u2019s Land Division proposed canceling the club\u2019s permit<\/a> for recreational boat pier purposes and granting a non-exclusive easement for use of the submerged lands. From 1977 to 2016, the yacht club had paid only $177.89 a month to rent the lands upon which its piers sit. Since 2016, it has paid $183.23 a month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Board of Land and Natural Resources deferred cancelling the permit to give the club more time to negotiate with the Land Division on the most appropriate type of disposition. It did, however, raise the rent. Since then, the Land Division transferred the permit to the Division of Boating and Ocean Recreation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n At the board\u2019s June 26 meeting, DOBOR property manager Richard Howard asked that the permit be renewed for another year. Rent would be the same as it was last year: $1,000 a month or 10 percent of gross receipts, whichever is greater.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \tHe reported that his division was still working with the yacht club on how to do a long-term disposition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \tLand Board member Jimmy Gomes suggested that it would be appropriate for the yacht club to do an environmental assessment, given the length of time it\u2019s had control of the land. He also said the permit rent should be higher than it is, noting that the board is charging a boat facility at Sand Island much more than $1,000 a month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Howard said the Kaneohe Yacht Club has argued against a rent increase because they\u2019re breaking even on its boat slip rentals. \u201cThey\u2019ve given us figures that show what they collect for slips in this area,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \t\u201cWouldn\u2019t you think \u2026 if they want to make money, they should increase their fees?\u201d Gomes asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \tHoward replied that whether the land is secured under a long-term lease or an easement, an independent appraisal will be done and \u201crent is going to go up no matter what.\u201d \t\u201cThey\u2019re trying to figure out where they want to go, an easement or an auction lease. I understand the sentiment that they should be paying more. This is a temporary thing. It\u2019s not going to be another 40 years. \u2026 I think we\u2019re going to get something to the board within the year. By December, we\u2019ll have some kind of request,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \tWith regard to the permit rent, board member Chris Yuen pointed out that because the slips are rented to yacht club members, the club isn\u2019t trying to make money off the state\u2019s lands. \u201cThe fact that they\u2019re not making money is not really a consideration,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \tHoward pointed out that the yacht club does pay for the dredging of its own basin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \t“We\u2019ve never paid anything for that or the repairs and maintenance of the piers themselves,\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \tBecause the adjacent fast land is owned by the club, \u201cthe only parties that can use this are only the yacht club and perhaps their neighbors,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The board ultimately approved the permit renewal at the recommended rent, but Yuen told Howard before the vote, \u201cWe need to do better on this one.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Board members Gomes and Sam Gon, who echoed Yuen\u2019s and Gomes\u2019s rent concerns, abstained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n — Teresa Dawson<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Department of Land and Natural Resources is still trying to figure out what to do with the revocable permit that the Kaneohe Yacht Club in Windawrd Oahu has held since 1977. The agency has resolved in recent years to … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10916,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,351],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-board-talk","category-eh-xtra"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12713","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=12713"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12713\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}