{"id":8531,"date":"2015-12-01T20:12:19","date_gmt":"2015-12-01T20:12:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.environment-hawaii.org\/?p=8531"},"modified":"2018-06-15T01:02:15","modified_gmt":"2018-06-15T01:02:15","slug":"ahihi-kinau-water-line-gets-permit-over-dlnr-concerns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/?p=8531","title":{"rendered":"`Ahihi-Kina`u Water Line Gets Permit Over DLNR Concerns"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Existing<\/a>
Existing water line at `Ahihi-Kina`u Natural Area Reserve<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Despite opposition from the Chairperson Suzanne Case and from the Department of Land and Natural Resources\u2019 Office of Conservation and Coastal Lands (OCCL), the Board of Land and Natural Resources approved a Conservation District Use Permit for a water line to an unimproved kuleana parcel adjacent to the `Ahihi-Kina`u Natural Area Reserve (NAR) in South Maui.<\/p>\n

By obtaining the CDUP, the value of the holding has increased for the 120-plus landowners with an interest in the kuleana lot, and they will likely be able to sell it for much more than the Maui County tax assessed value of $1,000. Selling the property would resolve a lawsuit initiated nearly 20 years ago when Betty Snowden realized she had a kuleana interest in lands now owned by Douglas Schatz, according to one of her attorneys.He added that under a settlement reached about a decade ago, Snowden and other kuleana landowners in the area there gave up their interest in some lots and agreed to sell the subject lot.<\/p>\n

A court-appointed commissioner, Ray Wimberly, decided that water should be made available to facilitate the sale. Both the lot and the right-of-way across which the water line will cross lie within the Conservation District.<\/p>\n

In evaluating the landowners\u2019 request for the permit, the OCCL found two major issues: 1) it was unclear who owned the land across which the water line would run \u2013 the county or the state; and 2) there was a concern that the permit request was part of a larger plan to develop a residence on the lot.<\/p>\n

OCCL administrator Sam Lemmo told the Land Board at its October 23 meeting that although the landowners had an easement from the county to install the line alongside the Makena-Keone`o`io Road right-of-way, a memorandum of agreement between the county and the state over joint maintenance of the road seemed to suggest that the state might hold jurisdiction \u2014 and, possibly, ownership \u2014 of the shoulder of the road, which is where the line would run. And if the state did indeed own the shoulder, that would mean it was within the NAR and that the landowners would need to get approval from the Natural Area Reserve System Commission.<\/p>\n

Lemmo added that because the water line will be providing infrastructure to a vacant Conservation District lot within the resource subzone, he had some concerns about \u201cwhether this constitutes parceling \u2026 of a larger project.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTheoretically, I can\u2019t do full-blown analysis of the project when I see only one component. My recommendation is to not accept the proposal,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Land Board member Chris Yuen, a former Hawai`i County Planning Director, didn\u2019t seem concerned that the state might own the easement area.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy take has always been these miscellaneous roads are county [owned] by operation of law,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Yuen was also persuaded by attorneys in the court case, who testified that the landowners have no future plans beyond installing the water line and selling the property.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole project is the water line,\u201d said attorney Andy Wilson. Wilson noted that the landowners planned to install the line alongside Schatz\u2019s water line.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re thinking, let\u2019s give the Hawaiians the same \u2026 eligibility of water that\u2019s existing down there,\u201d Wilson said.<\/p>\n

After an executive session, Yuen made a motion, seconded by Ulalia Woodside, to grant the CDUP.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of the day, this is a request for a two-inch diameter plastic pipe to lay along another plastic pipe \u2026 to service this vacant parcel,\u201d he said. He added that while he appreciated the OCCL flagging is this as something possibly part of a larger project, \u201cthere is truly not a larger project at this point.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before the final vote, Land Board chair Suzanne Case said she had to respectfully disagree with Yuen and thought the CDUP did, indeed, pose a segmentation issue.<\/p>\n

Approving the water pipeline is \u201ca step along the way\u201d to building a house in a very sensitive area, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very, very sympathetic to the applicants\u2019 long litigation and desire to create value. That is not our job. Our job is not to create value for a private parcel,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

In the end, the board approved the permit, with Case being the only member to vote in opposition.<\/p>\n

— T.D.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Despite opposition from the Chairperson Suzanne Case and from the Department of Land and Natural Resources’ Office of Conservation and Coastal Lands (OCCL), the Board of Land and Natural Resources approved a Conservation District Use Permit for a water line … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":220,"featured_media":8532,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[394],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-december-2015-2015"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8531","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\/220"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8531"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8531\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}