Decision on Kona village
awaits preservation plan

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By Rod Thompson
rthompson@starbulletin.com

Transfer of control of an old Hawaiian village in Kona to a nonprofit corporation must wait until a preservation plan is written, the state Board of Land & Natural Resources decided yesterday.

The board was considering the state-owned, 9.5-acre Hokukano Village, last inhabited in the 1800s, on the coast of the 1,550-acre Hokulia residential project now under development.

The Land Board unanimously approved transferring the village from the state Land Division to the Historic Preservation Division. But the board declined to take a second step, authorizing a lease of the land to a nonprofit corporation to be funded by Hokulia residents.

Melissa Seu of the Native Hawaiian Legal Corp., representing the Protect Keopuka Ohana, testified that a lease is not proper because the Hokukano Historic Preservation Corp. does not yet have nonprofit status.

Seu said the Keopuka group does have nonprofit status and is interested in acquiring the lease.

The Land Board ordered a preservation plan to be written before a lease is issued. The earliest the plan would be ready is December 2003.