Mayor Kim proposes Mauna Kea ‘people’s park’

Hawaii County Mayor Harry Kim proposed at his inauguration Monday that all of Mauna Kea become a “people’s park,” but also said he supports the controversial $1.4 billion Thirty Meter Telescope planned for the summit area of the mountain.

Kim also said in an interview after the inauguration ceremony that he is concerned demonstrators from outside Hawaii island may become involved in the dispute over Mauna Kea.

“If you look at what’s happening on the mainland, where people from not within come in to take over the movement, and I don’t want that to happen here,” he said, referring to protests over the Dakota Access Pipeline.

Protests on the mountain last year halted construction of the telescope by blocking the movement of construction crews and equipment on at least three occasions.

In a related development, the state Supreme Court has declined to hear appeals of a series of procedural decisions that opponents of the TMT have raised in a contested case hearing now underway in Hilo.

Opponents of the TMT project wanted the Supreme Court to remove hearings officer Riki May Amano from the contested case hearing, and also wanted lawyers from the state Attorney General’s Office disqualified as advisers to Amano.

Amano on Oct. 31 imposed a 30-minute time limit for each of the 25 contested case participants to question each witness, and the telescope opponents also want that time limit to be lifted.

However, the court ruled it does not have jurisdiction over the issues raised by the telescope opponents in the contested case hearing.

Kim did not provide any details about his “people’s park” proposal, but he told an audience of about 400 people at his inauguration in Hilo that he envisions Mauna Kea as “a monument for the world to look at.”

Kim said he told Gov. David Ige and the astronomers who support the TMT: “I’ve always felt the world and all of it is a gift to mankind. What we do with it depends on the stewards of that time, and as a very young man, looking at Mauna Kea, I know the specialness of that place, of what it feels like.

“What is my dream of Mauna Kea? I hope we can get there. I think we should work to Mauna Kea as a park, a Hawaii park, the whole mountain,” Kim said. “And the purpose of that park is a very simple one. Of all the studies done there, it is a quest for knowledge to make us a better people, a quest for knowledge to make us better stewards of this land.”

When asked after the ceremony whether he wants telescopes to remain on the mountain as part of his park concept, Kim replied that “it’s whether be with or without, but primarily it’s with, but with a different attitude, that everything up there is symbolic, a monument of what we want Hawaii to be about.”

He added: “There’s recognition of problems of the past, of how we disregarded and disrespected the culture, and from here we go forward. I really believe the ’scope is good for us. I think it’s good not only for Hawaii, but for the universe.”

Kim also said he does not understand why the controversies surrounding the TMT project have to be taken to court.

“You and I and everybody who’s coming into it have got to address the problems, or we have to address it together, and not all ‘this side’ or ‘that side,’ and ultimately let the court decide,” Kim said. “That is not resolving it.”

The TMT project has already been the subject of considerable litigation, and more court fights appear to be very likely. An earlier contested case proceeding for the project was held in 2011, and the Hawaii Supreme Court in December 2015 rejected a conservation district use permit issued by the state Board of Land and Natural Resources for the project.

That Supreme Court decision prompted the state to arrange the second contested case hearing now underway in Hilo.

Kealoha Pisciotta, a leading opponent of the TMT and president of an organization of cultural practitioners called Mauna Kea Anaina Hou, said it’s important that people understand the issues surrounding the TMT involve constitutionally protected cultural and religious rights.

“I appreciate Mayor Kim’s position, but if he’s going to take a position against the people who are here explaining that we do think the project is going to negatively impact our cultural and traditional practices, I would hope he would also want to talk to us,” she said. “He’s never asked us to speak with him regarding it, and I would think he would want to hear both sides of the story.”

The TMT would be the world’s most powerful telescope, but is planned for a site on Hawaii’s tallest mountain that some Hawaiians consider sacred. There are already 13 observatories on Mauna Kea, which is regarded by experts as one of the best sites in the world for modern astronomy.