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Longtime Heeia family
Star-Bulletin staff
gets eviction reprieveA family set to be evicted from a Heeia property was given a month's reprieve yesterday as it held a news conference.
Members of the Kaluhiwa family have had ties to land at Heeia Kea for more than 100 years, and have been acting as caretakers for the 219-acre property on and off for the past eight years.
The four-member family now lives in a warehouse that was built by Hawaiian Electric Co. when the property was being considered for a nuclear power plant.
The family has faced eviction three times as the property has changed hands. About a year ago, the current owner, Las Vegas-based HKLLC Inc., began court action to remove the Kaluhiwas.
While the Kaluhiwas have been negotiating to pay rent or lease the property, they have not paid any rent since the company acquired the land in 1997. However, "we've been trying for the past year," said Rocky Kaluhiwa.
During a news conference at Honolulu Hale, the Kaluhiwas said the city and state were in the midst of negotiations with the property owners.
Fifteen minutes into the news conference, state Sen. Bob Nakata arrived to announce that the Kaluhiwas had been given an additional month on the property while details were being worked out.
What could happen is that HKLLC would develop 17-1/2 acres of the property and the remainder would be put in a nonprofit land trust, which could be transferred to the city, the state or both, said City Councilman Steve Holmes.
In that case, both he and Nakata have "spoken in favor of keeping the family on the site as caretakers," Holmes said. "The family has a long history with the valley. We would not like to see them displaced."
