A community effort backed by the state and county to buy and preserve private land overlooking East Oahu’s scenic Ka Iwi Coast has dodged what appeared to be a project-killing pitfall.

The state Board of Land and Natural Resources voted April 10 to approve contributing $1 million in state money from a special land preservation program toward the purchase.

The unanimous vote occurred despite a surprise conflict that led officials administering the program to recommend against the contribution toward buying the 181-acre site, which is known as Ka Iwi mauka and had been targeted for private development of 180 vacation cabins and, later, a golf academy.

"It was intense … but it all worked out,"said Elizabeth Reilly, president of the nonprofit Livable Hawaii Kai Hui, which has long been involved in the preservation effort through the Ka Iwi Coalition.

In February, BLNR approval seemed like a relatively easy step after years of difficult work to arrange pieces of the deal that included having the landowner agree to sell and lining up city and state funding.

Livable Hawaii Kai Hui worked with the nonprofit Trust for Public Land and the state Department of Land and Natural Resources to apply for $1 million from DLNR’s Legacy Land Conservation Program in September. A commission judging competitive applications for program funds ranked Ka Iwi mauka as the second best of five projects recommended in December for funding.

An additional $2.5 million was approved by the city Clean Water and Natural Lands Commission toward an anticipated purchase price around $4.5 million. The $1 million or so balance needs to be raised by Livable Hawaii Kai Hui and Trust for Public Land.

A conflict, however, arose over who would manage the land.

Initially, DLNR agreed to own the property, and its Division of Forestry and Wildlife consented to managing the property. The city and Livable Hawaii Kai Hui would hold a conservation easement on the land.

The Division of Forestry and Wildlife recommended that BLNR approve the arrangement at its Feb. 27 meeting. But shortly before the meeting, the division determined that part of the arrangement — letting Livable Hawaii Kai Hui help manage the property under a conservation easement — wasn’t feasible.

BLNR deferred a decision on Ka Iwi mauka Feb. 27.

The two nonprofit groups proposed letting Livable Hawaii Kai Hui own the property and defer to the Division of Forestry and Wildlife for guidance on management issues including re-establishing native vegetation.

Livable Hawaii Kai Hui opposed being cut out from being a steward of a site for which it spearheaded the acquisition effort along with other community members including those who helped block resort development on the Ka Iwi coastline decades ago as the Save Sandy Beach Coalition.

"The community’s longstanding intention was for the Ka Iwi Coast Mauka Lands to be a community-owned and managed cultural heritage preserve,"the two nonprofits said in a March 26 letter to the Division of Forestry and Wildlife.

The division, which administers the Legacy Land Conservation Program, said it would be unfair to applicants who were denied program funding if it endorsed such a substantive change in an application after award rankings were made.

The division recommended that BLNR deny the modified Ka Iwi mauka funding approval, and instead use the $1 million to fund two projects that didn’t make the cut for limited funding this year. The division noted that the two projects that would receive funding under its recommendation were projects it applied for to acquire about 5,000 acres in Waialua.

The Division of Forestry and Wildlife said the Ka Iwi mauka project could reapply for funding next fiscal year.

Livable Hawaii Kai Hui said Ka Iwi mauka likely would not be available then because the land is tied up in bankruptcy where a court-appointed receiver has sold all other assets of the landowner and wants to sell the last asset within the next few months. The landowner has been willing to sell Ka Iwi mauka to DLNR.

To meet the seller’s timetable, Trust for Public Land intends to obtain a loan to buy the property with the intent to pay off the loan when the state, county and community contributions are obtained, and then transfer the land to Livable Hawaii Kai Hui. BLNR also approved that change.