Ala Wai Developer Dodges<\/b>\u00a0Lease Termination Again<\/b><\/p>\n
If Honey Bee USA, Inc., fails to secure a new funding partner before the Board of Land and Natural Resources meets later this month, company representatives have said they\u2019ll walk away from their lease to develop the Ala Wai boat harbor.<\/p>\n
On July 10, the DLNR\u2019s Division of Boating and Ocean Recreation had recommended that the Land Board cancel the lease due to the company\u2019s failure to pay rent, post a performance bond, and remain free of encumbrances. The division had first sought termination in March for the same reasons, but deferred with the expectation that Honey Bee would cure its defaults and find the necessary financing to meet its development goals, which include a boat repair facility, a fuel dock, wedding chapels, a commercial center, and a world-class kayak training facility.<\/p>\n
Honey Bee eventually did pay its back rent of more than $400,000, but the company immediately fell into arrears again. The funding partner Honey Bee had identified, Next Realty, backed out \u201cand we still don\u2019t have a bond and encumbrances aren\u2019t cleared up,\u201dDOBOR administrator Ed Underwood told the board on July 10.<\/p>\n
Underwood acknowledged that Honey Bee had found a new potential equity partner and lender for the project, but did not back off his recommendation that the board terminate the lease.<\/p>\n
Honey Bee consultant Deron Akiona asked the Land Board to defer its vote until the end of August and blamed the loss of Next Realty in large part on the lease terms giving the state as much as 50 percent of any profits on the sale of the development.<\/p>\n
Those terms have \u201cbeen an issue with every lender we\u2019ve spoken with, with good reason,\u201dAkiona said.<\/p>\n
Even so, ICON Commercial Lending tentatively agreed in June to provide $35 million in construction funding in exchange for a 50 percent equity interest in Honey Bee. Should ICON back out as well, so would Honey Bee, Akiona said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf ICON does not come up with this funding by your August meeting, I will be more than willing to come to this board to pull the lease,\u201dhe said. \u201cI\u2018ve been before four [Land] boards and four directors. \u2026My patience is kind of run down.\u201d<\/p>\n
He noted that Honey Bee has paid the DLNR $1.6 million in development fees and lease rent \u2014\u201c$1 million more than the state would have gotten under the previous lease.\u201dWhat\u2019s more, he added, the company spent some $3.5 million in planning and improving the property, largely to accommodate DOBOR\u2019s requirements that the development include a boat repair facility.<\/p>\n
DLNR staffer Keith Chun, who is helping DOBOR oversee the lease, told the Land Board that the requirement to build a boat repair yard \u2014a low-revenue use \u2014forces other tenants that may occupy the development to subsidize it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the lease is terminated, I would seriously reconsider that kind of low-revenue use in that part of Waikiki,\u201dChun said.<\/p>\n
Under the current language of the lease, Honey Bee performed as required, but then got stuck with financial problems when its principal pulled out, Chun continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is what it is,\u201dhe said.<\/p>\n
Chun seemed amenable to giving Honey Bee until August to secure its financing, but said he needed more information to vet ICON, which would eventually have to be added as a co-lessee.\u00a0 \u201cI would want at a minimum a detailed history of ICON, their experience, what other projects they completed,\u201dhe said.<\/p>\n
Some of Chun\u2019s requirements, such as requiring ICON to put its first round of funding \u2014$12 million \u2014into escrow by August 1, seemed too strict for some Land Board members.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think we should be putting a whole bunch of constraints on before they even commit and scare them away,\u201dsaid board member Stanley Roehrig.<\/p>\n
Akiona stated that ICON paying $12 million in escrow by August 1 was simply not going to happen.<\/p>\n
In the end, the Land Board agreed to give Honey Bee one last chance and deferred the matter until its second meeting in August.<\/p>\n
Before the vote, Underwood said that should Honey Bee\u2019s project not pan out, DOBOR would want to seek new development proposals for the old fuel dock, boat repair facility, and adjacent lands.<\/p>\n
\u201cTaking it to one entity is the way to go,\u201dhe said.<\/p>\n
(For more information on this, see the Ala Wai item in our April 2015 Board Talk.)<\/p>\n
***<\/b><\/p>\n
Permit Allows<\/b><\/p>\n
Rare Electrofishing<\/b><\/p>\n
To allow the DLNR\u2019s Division of Aquatic Resources to learn more about how electrofishing can best be used as a resource management tool, the Land Board granted a special use permit to researcher Michael Blum of Tulane University, who proposes to shock portions of about a dozen streams on O`ahu that are infested with invasive fish species.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not been used very often in Hawai`i. We would like more information on the effects of the tool for management purposes,\u201dDAR acting administrator Alton Miyasaka told the Land Board at its June 26 meeting.<\/p>\n
Years ago, Blum requested a permit to use electrofishing to assess native stream fish populations, but was denied and was forced to hand-net the fish. The only other electrofishing permit the Land Board has granted was to Robert Kinzie, who planned to test it in a wetland area as a potential way to control invasive frogs and fish.<\/p>\n
In that case, Kinzie only managed to kill cane toads because the wetland was filled with vegetation, according to DAR staff.<\/p>\n
Under Blum\u2019s current proposal, he plans to clear by hand native species from sections of each stream before shocking it, then return them after the introduced species are removed. Blum said he is focused on taking out guppies, mollies, swordtail, and armored catfish. He said he expects to begin work in December and continue over the next three years.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you give the fish the shock, it reminds me of when I was young. One of my relatives got a shock to the head. How do the fish enjoy that?\u201dasked Land Board member Stanley Roehrig.<\/p>\n
Blum said the shock momentarily stuns the fish, adding that the extent of the effect depends on the fish\u2019s size and physiology and the conductivity of the water.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a possible collateral mortality,\u201dhe said. (All of the removed introduced fish will eventually be ground up and examined.)<\/p>\n
Blum said similar work has been done in the Caribbean and Puerto Rico, with a high success rate post-removal.<\/p>\n
DAR biologist Glenn Higashi explained that electroshocking native fish can kill them, which is why it\u2019s not used here to assess fish populations.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know some o`opu (native stream goby), it does hurt them until they actually break their back,\u201dhe said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the reasons why we want to do a permit is to show the limits of electroshocking,\u201dhe continued. \u201cWe do not use electric shocking for assessment. We do snorkeling in the streams. When you electroshock, sometimes [the fish] sticks under the rock. They don’t have swim bladders.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, Higashi suggested there may be instances where electroshocking is more desirable than snorkeling.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are some places on O`ahu you don\u2019t particularly want to stick your faces in,\u201dhe said, naming the Ala Wai canal in Waikiki as one.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause they\u2019re willing to document what kind of currents, what kind of water chemistry and what kind of species it\u2019s going to affect and how, we think it\u2019s a very valuable thing for us to have done. We\u2019re not really trained to use the equipment,\u201dHigashi said of Blum\u2019s research.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor us, our use would only be for eradication purposes, not for assessment,\u201dhe said.<\/p>\n
A couple of Land Board members expressed their reluctance to issue the permit, but voted in the end to approve it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have strong reservations about this, but if it\u2019s going to provide an opportunity to have our native species flourish more than they are, that would be a great thing,\u201dRoehrig said.<\/p>\n
Blum assured the board that he would work closely with DAR on the project.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur aim is to improve the populations of native fauna in the streams,\u201dhe said.<\/p>\n
***<\/b><\/p>\n
Scientists Study Effects<\/b><\/p>\n
Of Climate Changes on Corals<\/b><\/p>\n
It\u2019s common for tempers to flare at Land Board meetings, given the controversial nature of some items that come before it, such as the development of telescopes on Mauna Kea. But it\u2019s rare for Land Board members to tell testifiers to \u201ctone it down\u201d when discussing requests for research permits.<\/p>\n
But that\u2019s what happened at the board\u2019s June 26 meeting. To assess historic effects of climate changes, Hawai`i Pacific University researcher Samuel Kahng had proposed collecting up to 15 large cores \u2014up to four meters long \u2014from coral colonies on O`ahu, Kaua`i, and Maui. The DLNR\u2019s Division of Aquatic Resources had recommended approving a permit for the work, but wanted to include several conditions aimed at mitigating potentially adverse impacts of the coring.<\/p>\n
Kahng argued that a number of those conditions were unnecessary, baseless, and showed an ignorance of coral biology.<\/p>\n
DAR had added a condition requiring Kahng to photograph all cored areas for one year afterward to provide the agency with hard evidence of impacts. It also suggested that the photo documentation continue for three years. DAR staff explained that it only has anecdotal testimony from researchers on the impacts of coral coring. Generally, they say colonies have recovered, albeit slowly in some cases.<\/p>\n
Kahng proposed to take cores 5.5 centimeters in diameter and one to four meters long. He planned to take five cores from each island, but DAR recommended he be allowed to take only two from Olowalu, Maui, because cores had already been taken from the area by researchers from the U.S. Geological Survey. Furthermore, the corals at Olowalu had suffered heavy impact from a bleaching event last year and the area is also affected by sediments, DAR staff stated.<\/p>\n
In addition, DAR asked that Kahng not take cores between August and November, when sea surface temperatures are high and corals are more vulnerable.<\/p>\n
Maui DAR biologist Russell Sparks crafted many of the recommendations and the agency\u2019s report to the Land Board detailed his concerns about Kahng\u2019s research, including the fact that the work would be done on colonies that are hundreds of years old.<\/p>\n
Because he was on a research cruise, Sparks was unable to attend the June meeting. Even so, DAR acting administrator Alton Miyasaka said the division felt it necessary to bring the permit request to the Land Board because Kahng\u2019s application had been under review for \u201ca very long time.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe felt it was important to bring the permit to the board at this time so there would be some clarity for funding [and to decide] whether or not this project was even going to go forward,\u201dMiyasaka said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s the value to the state for this project?\u201dasked Land Board member Keoni Downing.<\/p>\n
Miyasaka replied that the board\u2019s previous chair, William Aila, \u201cfelt it was important for the state to get as much information on potential climate change impacts as soon as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
In written responses to DAR\u2019s concerns, Kahng stated that the cores will provide a historical log of temperature, salinity, nutrient input, and other environmental variables.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnalysis of these historical trends would provide the Department with more information to better plan for climate change. Additionally, analysis of coral cores will lend information to determine the novelty or regularity of recent temperature events and the compounding impacts of anthropogenic activities,\u201dhe wrote.<\/p>\n
Land Board chair Suzanne Case, formerly the head of The Nature Conservancy of Hawai`i, seemed more comfortable than DAR staff with the work Kahng proposed. Coring is not an unusual research method and has been done at Palmyra atoll (where TNC has a preserve), she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cCoral is a rock with living tissue. \u2026The only living part of it is at the surface,\u201dshe said.<\/p>\n
Kahng\u2019s frustration with the whole review process showed immediately when it came time for him to testify.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis has been reviewed for eight months. I have been responding to an unending litany of accusations and concerns. These concerns are not based in peer-reviewed science,\u201dhe said.<\/p>\n
The risk that his coring would somehow seriously injure or kill a 400-year-old colony is minuscule, given that the area of live tissue harmed would represent only\u00a0 .01 percent of the colony\u2019s tissue, he argued.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter one year of growth, that tissue will be replaced many times over. In 2.5 days, it will be replaced,\u201dhe said. He likened the coring\u2019s effects on live coral tissue to taking a teaspoon of blood from a human or taking a branch from a tree.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis sampling is done all over the world,\u201dhe said. \u201cClimate change is one of the biggest issues facing our society. \u2026We have no clue on what\u2019s going to happen on a statewide scale. To say that this data is essentially worthless is bunk!\u201d<\/p>\n
At that point, Land Board member Roehrig said, \u201cI\u2019ve had a short fuse. I\u2019ve been asked to tone it down. I ask you to tone it down a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kahng replied that the review process has been unprecedentedly long and he\u2019s sent about 30 emails to DAR biologists trying to get his permit.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve provided responses any time there was a concern. Any time I asked for justification, no response. It\u2019s been a one way flow,\u201dhe complained.<\/p>\n
When asked how he felt about DAR\u2019s proposed permit conditions, Kahng said that, at this point, he could live with them.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think they\u2019re based on the best available science, but I want to move on,\u201dhe said.<\/p>\n
He did not, however, immediately agree to DAR\u2019s suggestion that he photograph all of the cored corals for three years. He said he\u2019s not funded for any follow up, so O`ahu is the only feasible area he could do it.<\/p>\n
Board member Ulalia Woodside told Kahng that he\u2019ll be working with his samples for a long time and advised him to have a care for the site he took them from.<\/p>\n
\u201cPart of that care should be to what we leave behind. I know you don\u2019t have that funding yet. I think you\u2019ll maybe be getting other funding,\u201dshe said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m fine with that. The only thing I ask is to be treated equitably and fairly,\u201dKahng replied.<\/p>\n
Miyasaka said DAR could probably find some funding to hire Kahng to look at the coring impacts, but Kahng was still reluctant to commit.<\/p>\n
Kahng noted that coral cores have been taken in the past and said that if the state wants to see the result, it can do that right now.<\/p>\n
\u201cGo take a picture,\u201dhe said.<\/p>\n
The Land Board eventually voted to make the three-year follow-up a condition of the permit, but not before Roehrig urged DAR to get Sparks and Kahng to collaborate on a solution.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you get all stallions in the corral, they like to kick rather than to nuzzle. You gotta get them to work together,\u201dhe said.<\/p>\n
Maui Land Board member Jimmy Gomes opposed the permit, in part, because Sparks had been unable to present his case to the board.<\/p>\n
***<\/b><\/p>\n
Land Board Approves<\/b><\/p>\n
Emergency Rules for Mauna Kea<\/b><\/p>\n
It was really all about controlling crowds while the $1.4 billion Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) is being built. And in the eyes of Ulalia Woodside, a member of the state Board of Land and Natural Resources, adopting emergency rules banning the possession of camping gear and barring public access to Mauna Kea at night wasn\u2019t the best way to achieve that.<\/p>\n
But she and Maui Land Board member Jimmy Gomes were alone in that belief.<\/p>\n
On July 10, the board\u2019s five other members voted to approve the rules proposed by the Department of Land and Natural Resources\u2019(DLNR) Division of Forestry and Wildlife (DOFAW) and drafted in conjunction with the state Department of the Attorney General.<\/p>\n
Specifically, the rules prohibit the possession of a sleeping bag, tent, camping stove or propane burner within the state public hunting area on Mauna Kea that encompasses lands surrounding the road to the summit. Also, no one will be allowed in the area between 10 p.m. and 4 a.m., unless they are transiting or lawfully inside one of the observatories operated by the University of Hawai`i.<\/p>\n
As reported widely by the local and national press, recent efforts to start construction of the TMT on the slopes of Mauna Kea have drawn hundreds of protesters seeking to protect what they consider to be sacred land. Some have blocked the road with boulders or their bodies. Dozens have been arrested. Even so, a small contingent of protesters, calling themselves protectors, maintain a vigil on the mountain, day and night.<\/p>\n
Attorney General Douglas Chin explained to the Land Board that the emergency rules, good for 120 days, were necessary because the DLNR\u2019s existing rules prohibiting camping were too vague for prosecutors to enforce.<\/p>\n
Before the final vote, which took place near 11 p.m., after several hours of public testimony followed by an hour-long executive session, Woodside said she was disappointed in the words of violence that had been used by both supporters and opponents of the TMT, and that she felt for the DOCARE officers tasked with controlling the volatile situation on Mauna Kea. However, she lamented that the emergency rules might not be the right tool to address the problems surrounding the protests against the TMT\u2019s construction.<\/p>\n
She suggested that the state had not taken full advantage of the groups and organizations that have been established specifically to address native Hawaiian issues: the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Kahu Ku Mauna (tasked with advising the University of Hawai`i-Hilo Office of Mauna Kea Management on cultural matters regarding Mauna Kea), and the Aha Moku Advisory Committee, created by the state Legislature to advise the DLNR.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe didn\u2019t use them beforehand,\u201dshe said. She went on to express her dismay that she had not heard from any state representatives who supported the rules \u201ca genuine understanding of what it means to have cultural practice on Mauna Kea.\u201d<\/p>\n
Indeed, she suggested that the rules DOFAW proposed to prevent camping (which would presumably help avert potential violence) might also impede people legally exercising their First Amendment rights and\/or their rights to engage in traditional and customary Native Hawaiian practices.<\/p>\n
Although many testifiers that day stressed that their protests were peaceful and bristled at any suggestion they would become violent, the Land Board\u2019s large stack of reports and written testimony included screen shots of several facebook posts by some apparent TMT opponents threatening sniper attacks, suicide bombing, and more blockages of the road<\/p>\n
As dangerous as some of the posts seemed, Woodside expressed her concern that all of the TMT opponents were being lumped together. Although she shared her fellow board members\u2019fear of violence, violence \u201cis very different from perseverance,\u201dshe said.<\/p>\n
Woodside\u2019s comments in some ways echoed testimony given by Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation attorney David Kopper, who opposed the rules. (The NHLC represents Kalani Flores, one of the original parties in the appeal of the TMT\u2019s Conservation District Use Permit.)<\/p>\n
Copper\u00a0argued that the DLNR had failed to comply with the Hawai`i Supreme Court\u2019s ruling in Ka Pa`akai<\/i>, which requires the agency to identify and mitigate adverse impacts the rules may have on native Hawaiian practices.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s more, he argued, the DLNR\u2019s current rules already prohibit things such as putting rocks in the road.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust enforce the rules you already have,\u201dhe said.<\/p>\n
However, when Land Board member Chris Yuen and chair Suzanne Case asked whether the protesters\u2019encampment on Mauna Kea was illegal camping under the current rules, Kopper\u00a0couldn\u2019t say.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou tell me. \u2026I\u2019ve not been up there,\u201dhe told Case.<\/p>\n
To Case, Kopper\u2019s inability to answer seemed to prove Chin\u2019s point that her department\u2019s rules against camping are so ambiguous they warrant the adopting of the emergency rules.<\/p>\n
Rather than adopting new rules, Marti Townsend, head of the Hawai`i Chapter of the Sierra Club and former head of KAHEA: the Hawaiian-Environmental Alliance (also a party to the TMT contested case hearing), suggested that the Land Board simply stay any construction under the TMT\u2019s 2011 Conservation District Use Permit until the Hawai`i Supreme Court rules on an appeal of that permit. Oral arguments have been scheduled for August 27.<\/p>\n
When it came time for the Land Board to discuss how to proceed, however, the CDUP never came up, at least not during the public hearing. In the end, after hearing hours of passionate testimony from more than 100 testifiers, most of whom opposed the rules, the Land Board seemed most swayed by DLNR enforcement chief Jason Redulla\u2019s assessment of the situation.<\/p>\n
In trying to convey the imminent threat to public health and safety the protests posed, Redulla recalled when people blocked the summit access road in April and June and placed rocks and built a shrine, or ahu, on the road on June 24.<\/p>\n
\u201cObstruction of the roadway hinders emergency vehicles,\u201dhe said, adding that vehicles that had tried to pass the obstructions came very close to the edge of the road, which has steep drop-offs.<\/p>\n
Given the road\u2019s steepness, the lack of space puts DOCARE officers in a dangerous situation, he said.<\/p>\n
Woodside asked how prohibiting access to Mauna Kea between 10 p.m. and 4 a.m. helps prevent anyone from blocking the road. She had noted earlier in the meeting that there are some Native Hawaiian cultural practices that take place at night on the mountain.<\/p>\n
Redulla responded that it would minimize the presence of people in the area, which would, in turn, make it safer for vehicles to use the road.<\/p>\n
The Land Board ultimately went along with the rules largely to support the DLNR\u2019s Division of Conservation and Resources Enforcement and out of concern over future road blockages.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur people need the tools to keep order on the mountain,\u201dsaid board member and Hawai`i island resident Yuen, who made the motion to approve the rules. He said that based on the information presented to him, he was convinced there was an imminent safety threat on Mauna Kea. Earlier in the meeting, Yuen stressed that there are legal ways to protest the TMT and \u201cit\u2019s not standing in the road, rocks in the road. I don\u2019t know what they expect the government to do when the government has to follow the rule of law.\u201d<\/p>\n
Perhaps addressing cultural uses or concerns expressed by hunters who may have to unexpectedly stay on the mountain past dark, Yuen added that the DLNR can and may grant special use permits to allow overnight stays.<\/p>\n
Board member Stanley Roehrig, also from Hawai`i island, seconded Yuen\u2019s motion. Roehrig said it was a painful decision for him to make and laid out several things he thought should be done to address the various issues that had been raised. For one, he said the university\u2019s Mauna Kea advisory group, Kahu Ku Mauna, needed to have more of a say in what happens on the mountain than it has had in the past. And to encourage more peaceful protests that do not include blocking the road, he suggested that a permanent protest site be designated.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe chair is open to considering that and so are we,\u201dhe said.<\/p>\n
When it became clear that the emergency rules would pass, one TMT opponent exclaimed, \u201cKu Kia`i Mauna,\u201da phrase calling for protectors of the mountain to stand strong.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll see you on the mountain,\u201dhe said as he left of the room.<\/p>\n
Gov. David Ige signed the rules on July 14 and DOCARE officers have reportedly been handing out fliers to protesters about the rules. Even so, some of them continue to occupy their encampment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ala Wai Developer Dodges Lease Termination Again If Honey Bee USA, Inc., fails to secure a new funding partner before the Board of Land and Natural Resources meets later this month, company representatives have said they’ll walk away from their lease … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8263,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[388,13],"tags":[3],"class_list":["post-8262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-august-2015","category-board-talk","tag-teresa-dawson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8262","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=8262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8262\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}