If land in Hawaii is power, some land is also a dilemma.

Kakaako Makai, for instance. The 30 acres on the makai side of Ala Moana Boulevard from Kewalo Basin to Honolulu Harbor are probably the state’s most valuable headache.

Last year, Gov. Neil Abercrombie gave the area, valued at $200 million, to the Office of Hawaiian Affairs to pay off past ceded land payments.

The land is spectacularly unkempt, historically and culturally significant, with gorgeous views of the mountains and the sea — and if developed, could be worth all of that estimated $200 million.

Development is the key.

OHA just got a detailed first report on planning for development.

The plan prepared by Group 70 International and Stanford Murata, Inc., says "OHA has the opportunity to plan and create a model urban waterfront community in Kakaako Makai that will serve as a beacon for Native Hawaiian values, practices, and deep knowledge."

The land now produces about $1 million a year in ground lease rent, but if developed, the OHA plan says, the land could return $14 million to $16 million a year.

That is important. Peter Apo, OHA trustee and chairman of OHA’s assets and resource management committee, explains on his website that OHA has "a fiduciary duty to engage in development planning that maximizes the settlement on behalf of our Hawaiian beneficiaries to at least the anticipated $200 million level of revenue."

To do that, the Group 70 plan explores ways to serve both cultural needs of the Native Hawaiian community and also the financial needs of OHA.

Bottom line: More buildings, not just office buildings, but apartments, some as high as 400 feet, and possibly a hotel.

Planners caution that all this first plan does is give OHA "a measuring tool that provides simple economic implications for a range of specific land use activities."

Building in Kakaako Makai will not be easy.

Its southern boundary is the Pacific Ocean and is in a flood zone. University of Hawaii scientists caution that "although vulnerable to inundation, such hazards are event-based with temporary impacts and development can be designed to withstand those events to achieve decades of useful life."

There are also notes about water pressure, water supply and whether the area has enough sewers to handle more development.

Briefly addressed, but not fully discussed, is the fact that the state in 2006 wrote a new law that forbids the Hawaii Community Development Authority from approving any plans for any residential development in the area.

Planners note that the report "does not delve into detail how OHA would pursue a residential option with said rules in place."

State law also says that a broadly based community group is supposed to come up with plans for Kakaako Makai and that HCDA would then move to implement them. That planning is finished and the plan does not call for residential units; instead, there is a discussion of community marketplaces, open access and walking trails.

Trustee Apo, a former legislator, acknowledged that process.

"What emerged was a conceptual plan that anticipates far less commercial and revenue-producing activity than a plan that would seek to pursue the highest and best uses for each and every parcel," Apo wrote.

"OHA does recognize that the conceptual plan we have sort of inherited still carries weight as an official expression of the community from which it sprung, and that highest and best use was the farthest thing from their minds," Apo added.

When it comes time for decisions, the many communities are likely to merge, push and fight. There will be surfers, families, Native Hawaiians, developers and OHA trustees all wanting something from Kakaako Makai.

Next year, the Legislature, which both stopped residential development on the parcels and then gave them to OHA to settle past bills, will have to answer a new, more complex dilemma.

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Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Reach him at rborreca@staradvertiser.com.