An effort to remove development threats from a ridge top and valley overlooking East Oahu’s scenic Ka Iwi Coast is finally coalescing after nearly a decade of arduous work.

State and city commissions have recommended tapping dedicated land preservation funds to pay most of the $4 million estimated cost to buy 181 acres once proposed for 180 vacation cabins, tennis and volleyball courts, pools and trails.

The acquisition is still subject to a few hurdles, including reaching final deal terms with the landowner and City Council approval.

Nonprofits leading the initiative also will have to raise an estimated $500,000 to $600,000.

But clearly the goal appears within grasp following years of effort opposing development and urging protection.

"It appears as if the stars are aligning for the completion of a movement — a people’s movement — to protect a mauka-to-makai coastline," said Elizabeth Reilly, president of the nonprofit Liveable Hawaii Kai Hui.

For many East Oahu residents, 

protecting the area referred to as the Ka Iwi mauka lands represents an extension of a decades-long battle that protected coastal areas between Sandy Beach and the Makapuu Lighthouse.

The earlier fight sought to stop developers in the 1970s from adding hotels, golf courses and condominiums envisioned by industrialist Henry J. Kaiser to the coastal area on land owned by Kamehameha Schools.

A grass-roots champion of that fight was the Save Sandy Beach Coalition, which helped lead to city and state purchases of more than 300 acres after a long legal struggle.

The state bought about 300 acres of coastal land from Kamehameha Schools for $12.8 million in 2001 that became a designated state scenic shoreline for public use.

A costlier piece of the preservation effort stemmed from the city downzoning 32 acres of trust land across from Sandy Beach. The trust and developer Maunalua Associates sued the city for economic losses and prevailed. However, before a 2002 trial to determine damages, the city settled for $5.4 million in cash plus proceeds from the sale of city land in Manana. Years later the Manana land sales generated $86 million for the trust and developer.

Bob Retherford, a Kailua resident who was involved with Save Sandy Beach with his wife, Ursula, said protecting the Ka Iwi mauka lands would complete the community vision.

"The fact that it is being done is kind of like a dream come true," Retherford said. "People have worked a long time to preserve that coast."

The cabin proposal was floated in 2006 by QRM LLC, which was led by local developer Bob Gerell, on two parcels owned by Maunalua Associates and zoned for preservation.

One parcel covering 98 acres with views of the Hawaii Kai Golf Course, Makapuu Beach and the Ka Iwi Coast was dubbed the Queen’s Rise Recreation Center. The other parcel, dubbed Mau’uwai Recreation Center, was slated for 83 acres extending up a valley partially occupied by the golf course.

QRM aimed to develop the project under county zoning rules that allow cabins as a secondary use to recreational activities.

"There is a demand for increased recreational opportunities for the growing population of East Honolulu," Aaron Eberhardt, a QRM representative, said at the time. "We recognize the community’s concerns, and we’ve designed our projects to blend into the existing landscape and complement nearby Ka Iwi State Park and other surrounding recreational areas."

QRM’s plan produced a big negative public reaction, though whether it was consistent with zoning rules was up to the director of the city Department of Planning and Permitting. 

Reilly recalled that former Save Sandy Beach leaders sprang back into action and formed the Ka Iwi Coalition as an offshoot of Liveable Hawaii Kai Hui. Support to block the project was rallied, and a petition with about 3,000 signatures was sent to then-Mayor Mufi Hannemann. 

At one community meeting attended by about 300 residents, Hannemann was urged to condemn the property. Hannemann expressed concern that the city couldn’t afford such a purchase.

Later that year, DPP declined to process a permit for the cabin project after concluding that the plan failed to show that cabins would be an accessory use to outdoor recreation.

"As proposed, the outdoor recreation activities appear accessory to the vacation cabins," wrote Henry Eng, then-DPP director.

QRM had indicated that visitors staying in the 800-square-foot cabins could make arrangements for existing nearby activities that include golf, horseback riding, fishing, snorkeling, scuba diving, archery and hiking as well as new on-site activities including swimming, picnicking, tennis, volleyball, rock climbing, mountain biking and horseshoes.

DPP rejected amended permit applications two more times. In 2007, project opponents helped change the city’s land-use ordinance so that cabins on preservation land would require a higher-level permit with a public hearing.

In 2008, bills were introduced in the Legislature to better protect the two parcels. One bill would have provided money to buy the land, while the other bill instructed the state Land Use Commission to reclassify the state land-use designation for the parcels from urban to conservation. Neither measure passed.

Before discussion of the bills began, QRM offered to limit its plan to just the 83-acre parcel abutting the golf course and give the other parcel to a willing organization for preservation.

"I think we’ve been very generous in what we’ve offered," Bill McCorriston, a local attorney representing QRM, said at the time, claiming the land was worth about $20 million. "It’s unprecedented to offer somebody 100 acres in urban and East Oahu for nothing."

Still, community opposition remained stiff. At a Hawaii Kai Neighborhood Board meeting in early 2008 that drew a crowd of about 300, speakers said the scaled-back project wasn’t acceptable.

In July 2008, QRM bought the two parcels for $3.6 million and simultaneously resold the land for $5.6 million to Kulia I Kanu’u Estates LLC, an affiliate of Utah-based Management Solutions Inc., which in 2009 discussed the possibility of developing a golf academy.

An unexpected shake-up with the property’s ownership happened in 2011 and improved community efforts to protect the property.

The shake-up was triggered by a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit that alleged Management Solutions was a Ponzi scheme that defrauded investors, who were often recruited by company principals Wendell A. Jacobson and Allen R. Jacobson through their membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Assets of Management Solutions, mostly made up of apartment buildings on the mainland roughly valued at $220 million, were frozen. A federal judge ruled in 2013 that financial irregularities existed in how investment money and expenses were shared between properties but that the operation didn’t amount to a Ponzi scheme.

A court-appointed receiver, Gil Miller, has been liquidating the assets to repay defrauded investors and creditors, and is willing to sell the Ka Iwi property to the state in partnership with the Ka Iwi Coalition and the Trust for Public Land.

The preservation groups used an appraisal from the landowner to target a $4 million anticipated purchase price, and sought to obtain the bulk of the money needed from two local commissions that approved awards last year.

The state Legacy Land Conservation Commission approved $1 million. The city Clean Water and Natural Lands Commission approved $2.5 million.

On the state side, the Department of Land and Natural Resources has endorsed the purchase and would own the land if a sale is completed. An approval was expected from the Board of Land and Natural Resources earlier this month, but a decision was deferred to a subsequent meeting.

On the city side, the $2.5 million is included in the next fiscal-year budget but would still need to be approved by the City Council.

One member of the city commission noted in a report that the opportunity to acquire the Ka Iwi mauka parcels is imperative now since the receiver aims to sell the property.

"The threat of development will always be there as long as the property is held (privately)," the commissioner, who was not identified, said in the report.

"The Ka Iwi Coast means so much to the people of Oahu, who have worked long and hard to protect one of the last undeveloped coastlines on Oahu," said another commission member.

Reilly said if the state and city funding receives final approvals, private fundraising efforts would likely begin in the summer.

"We’ve been working for eight years on this opportunity," she said. "The struggles have been so intense, but it seems that it eventually works out to where the land stays in its natural state."

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