When the last of 16 Hawaii Hansen’s disease patients dies, the National Park Service wants to allow more visitors to Kalaupapa National Historic Park and overhaul some buildings to accommodate them — but otherwise preserve the feel and history of the isolated Molokai peninsula that was home to 8,000 exiles afflicted with the disease also known as leprosy.

The park service has tried before to get a long-range management plan for the 10,725-acre park, which is listed as a landmark on the National Register of Historic Places. But the patient-residents — who have been promised lifetime lodging, food, electricity, water and health care at Kalaupapa — had little interest before, said Erika Stein Espaniola, superintendent for Kalaupapa National Historical Park.

Now, with patients ranging in age from the 70s to 90s and with seven to nine left living full time in Kalaupapa, the idea of a plan that preserves Kalaupapa’s history is gaining more appeal among residents who want to help decide what the park will look like after the last patient dies and 30 state Health Department workers who care for them leave, Espaniola said.

"In earlier years it was such a sensitive and emotional topic," Espaniola said. "It was hard to talk about the future with the patients because it (represented) the end of an era, and it was a really big thing. Now we’re glad we can plan while they’re still here, and they can help us plan."

While overnight visitors would still be allowed to sleep in guest quarters, the park service does not want to even allow overnight camping for future visitors, let alone permit new construction that would turn Kalaupapa into something different.

"It’s the reason why we’re here, to prevent that from happening," Espaniola said.

The park service has proposed four scenarios of what Kalaupapa could look like after the last patient dies, and prefers one that would lift the cap of 100 visitors per day and, for the first time, allow children to visit.

In a community where children were exiled — or Hansen’s disease parents were forced to leave their children behind — the issue of child visitors in Kalaupapa has long been a touchy and emotional subject.

The park service has made no proposal for how many people would be allowed to visit, but wants to encourage school field trips to teach future generations about the pain, beauty and humanity found in a 21⁄4-mile-wide peninsula cut off from "Topside Molokai" by 1,700- to 2,000-foot sea cliffs.

After King Kamehameha V in 1866 banished Hansen’s disease patients to Kalaupapa with no hope of ever leaving, more than 8,000 patients died — most of them Native Hawaiians. The forced isolation continued until 1969.

THE COMPASSION the patients were shown by Father Damien and later Mother Marianne Cope, who both volunteered to care for the abandoned patients, was the basis for sainthood.

"It’s a story about social justice," Espaniola said. "It’s a story about religion and spirituality and strength to an amazing degree."

The park service would continue to manage a place that has more than 30 threatened and endangered species and is a popular birthing grounds for endangered Hawaiian monk seals.

Patient Clarence "Boogie" Kahilihiwa, president of the nonprofit Ka ‘Ohana o Kalaupapa patient and family organization, did not respond to a request for comment on the park service proposal.

But in a 2011 letter that Espaniola considers "major," Kahilihiwa wrote that little emphasis had been given to Native Hawaiians and Native Hawaiian access to burial sites, among other issues under a management plan.

"There seems to be a great deal of emphasis on ‘the visitor experience’ with little or no mention of Native Hawaiians or family members," Kahilihiwa wrote. "Native Hawaiians should not be considered ‘visitors’ in their own land; family members should not be considered ‘visitors’ in the place where their ancestors once lived and died. … This is not a ‘national park’ where the emphasis is on recreation, scenic views, hiking trails and enjoyment, but a ‘national historic park’ where the emphasis is on preserving an important chapter of history and passing down that history to future generations as accurately as possible."

The park service will be holding meetings on Molokai, Maui, Oahu and online in May to get further feedback.

The park service’s four proposals are:

» Making no changes and leaving the 40 federal workers in place.

» Making no changes but coming up with a long-term plan to manage Kalaupapa once the Department of Health leaves.

» Allowing more visitors, who would be supervised (known as "Alternative C," which the park service prefers).

» Giving an undetermined number of visitors unfettered access.

All of the proposals anticipate erecting some kind of as-yet-undefined memorial to the 8,000 Hansen’s disease patients. It would be near the former Baldwin Home for Boys in Kalawao, Damien’s original settlement, Espaniola said.

Under the proposal that the park service recommends, its annual operating budget would grow to $8 million from $6 million, mostly to hire 15 more federal employees — for a total of 55 — to handle an increase in visitors.

A one-time cost of $33 million also would be needed to renovate some buildings, such as the cafeteria currently used by patients, clergy and federal and state workers. Instead, it would likely be turned into a restaurant catering to tourists, along with other possible buildings geared to visitors, Espaniola said.

The limit of 100 visitors per day would be increased to an unknown number. Under the plan preferred by the park service, visitors would be escorted around most parts of Kalaupapa but would have unescorted access to Kalawao — home of St. Damien’s original St. Philomena Catholic Church — and Kauhako Crater. They’re two areas that Espaniola called "major meditative, contemplative places."

The "C" proposal also would allow the park to expand to include adjacent lands owned by the Nature Conservancy and Pu‘u o Hoku Ranch, which have approached the park service about it acquiring their land.

It’s unclear whether the land would be donated or have to be purchased. But Espaniola said it would be preserved as conservation land while continuing to allow hunting and fishing.

Valerie Monson, secretary-coordinator for Ka ‘Ohana o Kalaupapa, wrote in an email to the Hono­lulu Star-Advertiser that she worries "the history of Kalaupapa will become less important" if Kalaupapa National Historic Park expands.

The park was founded in 1980, Monson said, after resident Richard Marks "feared private developers could get ahold of Kalaupapa, force the people to be moved and turn it into a resort and golf course," adding, "The Park Service came to preserve the lifestyle of the people of Kalaupapa and their important history. … The primary purpose of Kalaupapa National Historical Park is history and remembering the people who were taken from their families and sent there because of government policies regarding leprosy as well as remembering the contributions of the kama‘aina and kokua."

Marks’ widow, Gloria, continues to run bus tours through Kalaupapa for visitors, who must be sponsored before they’re allowed in.

When the last patient dies, Espaniola expects that new vendors would operate tours for both adults and children, and possibly rent them bikes or provide shuttles.

As with the USS Arizona Memorial, which is part of a national park, Espaniola anticipates that visitors to Kalaupapa would first be required to watch an orientation movie "to set the tone."

"People might want to come who have no knowledge of Kalaupapa," Espaniola said. "Before they go off to explore, they need to know that it’s more of a contemplative place, not a recreational park."