Over the past few years, it has been home to rabbits, donkeys, goats, geese, turkeys, sheep, pigs, cows and an odd assortment of other animals, many of them rescued or taken in because their owners were no longer willing or able to care for them.
Today the small farm beside Kalanianaole Highway in Waimanalo still is home to roughly 100 animals. It has become an unofficial petting zoo, a roadside stop along Oahu’s Windward coast where people can see, feed and touch some of the creatures.
But the animals are on the verge of losing their home, caught in the middle of a legal entanglement between the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, the property owner, and two brothers who once had a month-to-month permit to rent 105 acres in Waimanalo. The farm is on a few acres of that parcel.
Faced with an eviction lawsuit filed by DHHL, Nowlin and Weston Correa, through their then-attorney, agreed in July to vacate the Waimanalo property by Sept. 25.
But the brothers, with the help of a new attorney, now are fighting to stay on the land.
Their new lawyer, Dexter Kaiama, has even raised the argument that DHHL lacks the authority to evict his clients, citing factors related to what he believes is the continued existence of the Hawaiian kingdom.
As the legal fight has unfolded, some Waimanalo residents, merchants, a state representative and others have been trying to save the farm or find an alternative spot where Claude Colton, the farm’s operator, is able to continue his passion of caring for the animals and the land.
A Facebook page has been created, petitions are being circulated and a letter-writing campaign is in the works.
"It really is kind of wonderful to see," state Rep. Chris Lee, whose district includes Waimanalo, said of the community-based effort to help the farm, which has no formal name but is referred to as Waimanalo Animal Farm or Waimanalo Roadside Farm.
People in the community appreciate what Colton has done and want him to continue his rescue operation, said Lee, who has heard discussions about the problem at community meetings and talked to DHHL about it.
"He has just a really deep connection to the animals and the land," Dana Vennen, executive director of the nonprofit Therapeutic Horsemanship of Hawaii, said of Colton.
Julie Mijo, manager of Waimanalo Feed Supply, said her business has posted a petition for people to sign to help save Colton’s farm. She described him as a regular customer who is community-minded and "a very genuine, nice person."
For the past five years, Colton said, his uncles have allowed him to use about 3 acres on the Waimanalo parcel to operate his farm, which has become a refuge for all sorts of animals. He said he doesn’t pay rent to his uncles and does not live there.
Colton has been operating the farm even though DHHL has never given him permission to do so.
Colton relies on his wife, MaryRose, and a friend, Percy Plunkett, to help him run the farm, which he said barely gets by on community donations and income from the handyman jobs he does.
"I know how to stretch a penny," he said Tuesday in a phone interview with the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.
Colton said he only recently was told the property had to be vacated by Oct. 10. On Oct. 11, he added, trucks and trailers are expected to haul off anything left behind.
Asked what he plans to do on Oct. 10, Colton said, "I’m waiting for God to show me what he wants."
Darrell Young, DHHL’s deputy director, told the Star-Advertiser in an email that his agency has not given the Correa brothers a firm deadline "other than to say that we are willing to work with them to vacate in a reasonable amount of time."
The department already gave them 90 days to prepare to vacate the land by Sept. 25, something they told the judge they would do, Young said. He added that DHHL must report back to the court at the end of October regarding an assessment of the property.
"While it is unfortunate, the department and the (Hawaiian Homes) Commission take the court order and the responsibility to our beneficiaries with the highest regard," a DHHL statement said. "As we stated in prior actions, we take no pleasure in having to do this."
Regarding the animal farm, Young said DHHL "can empathize with the community over the loss of their petting zoo." But he noted that the farm operators have no agreement with the agency and that DHHL has no recourse but to follow through with the settlement of the court case.
"We can try to accommodate their needs for a week or two but eventually all the animals need to be relocated," Young wrote.
DHHL sought to evict the Correas after the Star-Advertiser published a series last year about problems with the agency’s so-called revocable permit program, which entails the leasing of largely undeveloped department land on a month-to-month basis.
The permit the Correas had for the Waimanalo property was revoked by the agency in 2009 for multiple violations of the rental agreement, including holding large commercial gatherings on the property and accumulating more than $200,000 in city fines for grading land without a permit.
But the state took no action to evict the brothers until after the Star-Advertiser series revealed that the permit had been revoked nearly four years earlier and the brothers were continuing to use the land.
DHHL is developing rules to reform the permit program.
