State OKs rent deal
on Waikoloa shore use
The state Board of Land and Natural Resources voted unanimously yesterday to accept interim payments of $6,000 a month for use of state-owned shoreline land by the Hilton Waikoloa Village resort on the Big Island.
The payments apply only to 1.337 acres of dry land, said state Land Division Administrator Dierdre Mamiya. Negotiations will take place later on rent for a 0.468-acre underwater area that is part of the resort's 4-acre swimming lagoon.
The total of above- and below-water lands is now put at 1.805 acres, a revision of prior estimates, Mamiya said.
Attorney Alan Murakami of the Native Hawaiian Legal Corp. said he was disappointed that the board didn't insist on the full $16,000-per-month rent, which an appraiser says the land is worth.
The organization represents Mervin "Kanak" Napeahi, who filed suit in 1985 contending that the shoreline claimed by the resort developer to be private was actually public. A 1997 court ruling affirmed public ownership.
Most of the land at the 62-acre resort is owned by Lanpar/HTL Associates.
Attorney John Jubinsky, representing Ticor Title Insurance and speaking for Lanpar, told the Land Board that the company can pay the full $16,000 but is unwilling to do so.
A process of obtaining up to three appraisals of the land, now under way, will determine the final rent Lanpar must pay. The process will take up to five months.
