`Aina Le`a Update: DW `Aina Le`a, LLC, which owns 1,072 acres of land near Waikoloa, on the Kohala coast of the Big Island, is suing the state of Hawai`i for $200 million as a result of actions by the Land Use Commission in 2010 and 2011, when the LUC voted to revert the land to the Agricultural land use district. The land had been upzoned to the Urban district two decades earlier, but the LUC was not satisfied with the progress in developing required affordable housing units and therefore voted in favor of the reversion.
Within days of the lawsuit being filed in Hawai`i’s 1st Circuit Court, the state had the case removed to U.S. District Court in Honolulu. On March 22, the state moved to have the case dismissed, on the ground that the statute of limitations had passed for filing such a claim years ago.
“The allegations in plaintiff’s complaint establish that the last possible day the takings claim could have accrued was April 25, 2011,” wrote deputy attorney general William Wynhoff in the motion for dismissal. “Faced with a two- year statute of limitations, plaintiff was required to file a takings claim by April 25, 2013. Plaintiff failed to file such a claim until February 23, 2017, almost four years too late. The sole takings claim is, therefore, time-barred as a matter of law, and this Court should dismiss the complaint with prejudice.”
TMT Update: March 2 was the last day testimony was taken in the contested case hearing over the Conservation District Use Application for construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope. It took more than six weeks – until April 18 – for the 44 volumes of transcripts of the proceedings to be prepared and delivered to public libraries on the Big Island and the main state library in Honolulu.
The hearing officer, retired judge Riki May Amano, has now set a deadline of May 30 for the parties to the case to complete their proposed findings of fact, conclusions of law, and decision and order. Responses to proposed findings are due June 13.
On April 16, Easter Sunday, Tim Lui-Kwan, one of the team of attorneys for the applicant, the University of Hawai`i, died while swimming near Kaimana Beach on O`ahu. Taking his place is Lindsay McAneeley, who will join the two other team members, Ian Sandison and Pete Manaut.
Big $ For Whitmore Hub: If the state Senate gets its way, Dole Foods, Inc., will be lined up to receive $20 million in state funds for lands it has put up for sale in Central O`ahu.
When the governor’s budget (House Bill 100) was first introduced, it did not include any funds for further acquisitions of land in the Whitmore area of O`ahu, which Sen. Donovan Dela Cruz and the state Agribusiness Development Corporation are trying to turn into the island’s agricultural hub. Last year, the state Legislature authorized, and the governor approved, the expenditure of $31.5 million to acquire land in the area (also owned by Dole) to support their vision. That’s on top of the tens of millions that have already been spent acquiring nearly 2,000 acres from Dole, Castle and Cooke, and the former Galbraith Estate.
In late March, the Senate Ways and Means Committee (Dela Cruz is its vice chair) inserted into HB 100 a number of pricey capital improvement projects, including $4 million for a packing and processing facility at Whitmore Village, and $20 million to purchase 500 acres from Dole “to lease to local farmers, decreasing the State’s dependence on imported agriculture products,” a committee report states.