For more than four years, work has progressed on a sprawling subdivision for small farms in Kunia where dozens of significant historic and cultural sites dot the landscape. Some date from before Native Hawaiians had contact with the outside world.
Since about 2010 the 854-acre development, called Kunia Loa Ridge Farmlands, has been transformed into a place where farmers can grow crops on up to 99 lots. Land has been cleared, dirt roads improved or added, reservoirs installed, and many structures have been built throughout the property.
Yet even as work continues, there still is no preservation or burial treatment plan — the two documents that detail how the significant historic sites will be preserved — in place.
The State Historic Preservation Division, which reviews and approves such plans, says it expects to get drafts from the landowner next month and that interim preservation buffers — basically, protection zones — have been identified for each of the historic properties. Some are blocked off by fencing.
The sites include remnants of rock walls and heiau.
Despite complaints that sites have been damaged, the division has found no evidence of any damage, according to Susan Lebo, the division’s lead archaeologist for Oahu.
But preservation advocates contend that the absence of approved plans more than four years after work started is an indication of lax government oversight.
"This project is a poster child example of what should not happen," said Donna Wong, executive director of Hawaii’s Thousand Friends, a nonprofit that advocates for reasonable and responsible growth.
The Kunia Loa subdivision, a few miles off Kunia Road with access controlled through a guarded gate, is not connected to Oahu’s power, water, telephone or sewer systems.
It is exempt from county subdivision requirements, such as sidewalks and paved roads, because the project falls under a 2006 state law covering leased agricultural lands. The law prohibits residential use.
The city initially took a largely hands-off approach regarding construction oversight at Kunia Loa because of another state law, enacted in 2012, that exempts certain ag structures from needing building permits on commercial farms.
The project is being developed in a region considered special by many Hawaiians for its historic link to ancient alii, or chiefs, and other cultural traditions, and the presence of many important sites.
An archaeological survey commissioned by the Kunia Loa developer identified 54 significant historic and cultural sites on the 854 acres. The survey also noted which ones need to be covered by the two plans and underscored the developer’s intention of preserving traditional Hawaiian sites identified as significant.
But Hawaiians and others familiar with the area continue to question whether the state and city are adequately monitoring the development.
The Office of Hawaiian Affairs, for instance, continues to be concerned about the lack of preservation and burial treatment plans, according to an OHA spokesman.
Shad Kane, chairman of the Oahu Council of Hawaiian Civic Clubs’ committee on preservation of historic and cultural properties, likewise voiced concern.
"There’s very little oversight," he said.
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Kane used to ride horses regularly in the area. When he visited the Kunia Loa site in October, he said, the landscape had changed so much, particularly with the addition of many houselike structures, that he hardly recognized it.
Some of the structures have two stories and second-floor balconies; some have portable toilets outdoors; some have power generators.
The proliferation of the houselike buildings on land where residential use is prohibited triggered criticism about the oversight and added to confusion over what the 2012 state law exempts. Even the project developer in late 2013 raised concerns about the city’s lack of building inspections.
After the Honolulu Star-Advertiser wrote about the houselike structures in April — more than 20 were counted by the newspaper then — the city launched an investigation and issued 22 violation notices and 19 follow-up orders demanding corrective action.
All but three of the notices and three of the orders have since been resolved, including cases in which the problem was fixed by the building owner obtaining a permit or by showing that the structure was exempt under the 2012 law, the city says.
None of the inspected structures was found to be a dwelling, which must have a cooking facility, sanitation facility and electricity to be considered one, according to the city.
Yet at least two Kunia Loa farmers and others who have visited the property told the Star-Advertiser that people continue to live there. One farmer admitted to the newspaper that he resides on his lot.
Over the past year or so, more houses have been built, and more seem to be used as residences, said Sheila Valdez of Na Wahine o Kunia, a Hawaiian group that is keeping tabs on the project because of concerns that cultural sites are being damaged.
Attorney Raymond Iwamoto, who represents the project’s developer, C & C Farmlands LLC, said his client is not aware of anyone living on the property and expressed skepticism about those who claim people reside there.
"How do you live on a property without domestic water, electricity, sewer service, etc?" Iwamoto wrote in an email to the Star-Advertiser. "A farmer may stay overnight and ‘camp out’ but that is not living there. If someone despite these problems is willing to ‘live there,’ it may be he has nowhere else to go. Well, that is a violation, and there is a process to respond to that violation."
Regarding the preservation and burial treatment plans, Iwamoto said drafts have passed initial muster with the State Historic Preservation Division but that submittal of the final documents has been slowed because of challenges tied to arranging meetings with all the cultural descendants providing feedback.
"The fact that these (plans) have not been finally approved is no indication of any problems culturally or historically," he wrote. "It’s just that there is a formal process that is going on, and the developer cannot control the speed of that process."
In written responses to the newspaper, Susan Lebo, the State Historic Preservation Division’s lead archaeologist for Oahu, said much of the ongoing development at Kunia Loa has been on lots that an archaeological survey indicated do not contain historic sites. The division also is aware that the landowner and lessees have committees that enforce rules on care and preservation of historic properties, she added.
Lebo said her agency is continuing to work with the various parties to ensure preservation and burial treatment plans are implemented.
Ideally, she acknowledged, interim preservation measures are in place before construction activities.
"We understand the frustration many have expressed, but many of the concerns either are beyond our agency’s authority, such as the issuing of permits, and others require individuals to be willing to come forward to provide first-hand information about incidents of damage or destruction," Lebo wrote.
Of the few building permits that the city has submitted to the division for review, none has involved lots identified as having historic sites, according to Lebo.
Peter Mills, an anthropology professor at the University of Hawaii at Hilo, said the absence of approved preservation and burial treatment plans four years after development started is symptomatic of a broader problem related to insufficient oversight by review agencies.
The division still is trying to rebuild its staff and programs from major cuts in the early 2000s and has made substantial improvements in the past several years, according to Mills.
"When historic preservation is done well and early, it can be a win-win situation for all involved," he said in an email to the Star-Advertiser. "When it is not done, or minimally complied with late in the planning process, then there is a much higher likelihood that important sites will be lost, projects will be delayed and the courts will get bloated with avoidable litigation."
Wong of Hawaii’s Thousand Friends said in an email that Hawaii has good preservation laws but lacks enforcement. At Kunia Loa, she added, the state and city needed to be more diligent so that meaningful consultations and plans were in place before the project got off the ground. She said little serious farming is being done there.
"If indeed the project was to promote farming and ag production, it has missed its mark," she wrote.
