Under pressure, Hawaii County officials look to grant lava access

A checkpoint blocking public access to Leilani Estates will remain in place for at least another month while officials search for ways to give visitors a safe and legal way to see the lava field and 300-foot cinder cone left behind from Kilauea Volcano’s most active hot spot, Mayor Harry Kim told the Honolulu Star- Advertiser on Monday.

The manned roadblock at the intersection of the state-owned Highway 130 and county-owned Leilani Avenue — which leads directly to fissure 8’s cinder cone — was scheduled to come down Wednesday with the ending of Federal Emergency Management Agency funds that pay 75 percent of the $100,000 monthly costs to staff the checkpoint.

But the threat of a federal lawsuit from the Leilani Community Association has postponed the dismantling, and Kim said he plans to appeal to FEMA to keep funding its share of the costs for another month.

In the meantime the mayor hopes to advance plans to construct a much-awaited lava-viewing area while working to reopen the Pohoiki waterfront, which also was cut off by lava.

In the best-case scenario, the lava- viewing area and Pohoiki waterfront would open for lava tourists just as the checkpoint at Leilani Avenue comes down next month, lessening the visitor effects on the Leilani subdivision, Kim said.

Tourists continue to trespass over privately owned land covered by cinder cones “that are still hot and brittle,” Kim said. “That’s why it’s taking us so damn long to make the right decision.”

The issue of removing the checkpoint at Leilani Avenue represents just the latest tough call for Kim and Hawaii County Civil Defense officials since Kilauea began erupting May 3.

Along the way, lava from Kilauea opened 24 fissures, covered more than 6,000 acres of land in Lower Puna, destroyed nearly 720 homes in the Leilani Estates and Kapoho areas, and buried or isolated more than 1,600 acres of farms.

The eruption also temporarily forced the closure of parts of Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park, Hawaii island’s largest tourist attraction, which affected the island’s tourist economy.

But whatever decisions come next “are not what’s best for sightseers,” Kim said. “It’s what’s best for the property owners.”

At the same time, Kim said, Hawaii County cannot afford to close off the Lei­lani Estates subdivision indefinitely.

“There are hundreds of subdivisions that would love to have around-the-clock security,” Kim said.

Kim said he appreciates the desires of some Leilani Estates residents to curb the number of lava lookie-loos who continue to trespass onto their — and the association’s — private property.

“The residents are very, very concerned this is a small private subdivision that will have problems with sightseers. That’s real,” Kim said. “I hate to say it, but people of Leilani have to accept and understand that people wanting to come and look will always be there.”

County officials had considered a handful of possible locations for a safe place for people to view the sprawling lava field and fissure 8.

All of them had been dismissed for a variety of issues, which include liability, accessibility and parking.

But now a previously considered site at an undisclosed location outside of Leilani Estates again is under consideration. Because of parking restrictions, it would likely need to be accessed via a privately contracted shuttle service.

“No site will be able to handle all of the vans and buses and cars,” Kim said.

New normal

Life in Leilani Estates has just started to return to a new version of normal, said Pahoa attorney Mike Garbarino, who represents the Leilani Community Association and is preparing to file a lawsuit in federal court to prevent Hawaii County from removing its checkpoint at Leilani Avenue.

Garbarino said the members of the Leilani Community Association previously won a victory Sept. 9 by getting their mandatory evacuation order lifted.

“Anybody can move back in, and the neighborhood is very much in recovery mode,” Garbarino said.

So removing the checkpoint at Leilani Avenue is certain to lead to a constant stream of vehicle, van and bus traffic onto the two-lane road that leads directly to fissure 8 just 12 short blocks from Highway 130, he said.

“Fissure 8 is world- famous,” Garbarino said. “We are ground zero. There’s been nothing like this in modern history.”

So taking down the barricade represents “an unconstitutional violation of my client’s rights,” Garbarino said. “The government is in effect inviting the public to come on in. The law is very clear. That’s a violation of the equal protection clause. You can’t do that.”

Some members of the community association want to work with the county in transferring the control of public access from private security guards to Leilani Estates, Garbarino said.

“The cops are understaffed, there are no resources,” Garbarino said. “The military, of course, is long gone.”

For the members of the Leilani Community Association, Garbarino said, “it their responsibility to protect the property values. That is their mission under law.”