Following months of public hearings and revision, the latest version of the controversial Mauna Kea administrative rules will be considered for adoption Wednesday by the University of Hawaii Board of Regents.

University officials say the latest draft of the rules, released Thursday, is about public safety and protecting natural resources on the mountain, but critics say the effort is more about protecting the development of the planned Thirty Meter Telescope.

“The primary threat to Mauna Kea is further development,” Mauna Kea Hui leader Kealoha Pisciotta said Thursday. “Don’t try to criminalize the public for anything we’re doing. The public is not the problem.”

Designed to help the university manage the 11,000-plus acres of land it leases at the summit of Hawaii’s tallest mountain, the rules were recommended in a scathing report by the state auditor in 1998 and finally authorized by the state Legislature in 2009.

Due to lawsuits, contested hearings and other issues, university officials said they weren’t able to develop the rules until last year.

The rules have since gone through two rounds of public hearings and undergone revisions. They propose restrictions on commercial tours, restrict camping, limit snow play, prohibit drones and gliders, and establish fines for breaking the rules, among other things.

Most of the latest changes in the draft rule are minor. Among them is the extension of the deadline to seek an appeal for violating the rules, to 15 from seven days, after concerns were raised by the American Civil Liberties Union, officials said.

Jesse Souki, UH associate general counsel, said the draft rules originally were the same rules used for forestry lands and at the Mauna Kea Ice Age Natural Area Reserve, which includes the Mauna Kea Adze Quarry near the summit.

But after hearing from the public, Souki said, the university has attempted to modify the rules in an effort to balance the protection of natural resources and health and safety with the need and desire of the community to go up the mountain.

For example, the original draft called for groups of 10 or more to obtain a permit to enter UH-managed lands. That has been changed to an easier registration requirement. The intent, Souki said, is to help managers deal with an increased impact of larger groups.

But critics say the rules are designed to limit access, regulate Hawaiian cultural practitioners and even prevent civil disobedience.

“To decide who can come, who can pray and who can’t pray is wrong,” said Pisciotta, a Native Hawaiian cultural practitioner.

In his written testimony, Zach Street of Hilo urged the university to withdraw the draft rules.

“This would be a first step of reversing the illegal, unethical, and costly violations of cultural and ecological resources the university perpetrates in it’s misguided quest to construct the TMT in a designated Conservation District within Crown Lands,” Street said.

But Souki said the rules have nothing to do with the TMT, nor are they intended to stop cultural practices.

No one was ever been denied the opportunity to conduct cultural practices on the mountain prior to the road closure created by the TMT protest, he said, and no one will be denied when the road is open.

“The rules do not regulate culture in any way,” Souki said.

As for the people protesting the TMT at the base of the mountain, he said, they will not be affected because the camp is outside the UH-managed lands.

Officials expect a large crowd at Wednesday’s 9:30 a.m. meeting at UH Hilo’s Performing Arts Center. Testimony may also be submitted by email at bor.testimony@ hawaii.edu.

University spokesman Dan Meisenzahl said that after reviewing and hearing the testimony, the regents could adopt the latest draft, defer decision-­making or request a third round of formal public hearings on new draft rules that are substantially different from the current draft.

If adopted by the regents, the rules will advance through the remainder of the administrative rules process to Gov. David Ige for final approval.

The board will also consider a resolution that calls for a reorganization and restructuring plan aimed at improving operations and management of Mauna Kea. It also asks for an analysis to determine whether the management of the 11,228-acre Mauna Kea Science Reserve would be better served if transferred to a governmental authority or other third party.

In addition, the resolution sets a timeline for closing five of the 13 telescopes on the mountain in connection with the TMT.

Under the plan, three of the five telescopes would be shut down by the end of 2022, and a fourth would be identified for closure by then as well.

The fifth, the Very Long Baseline Array observatory, is already scheduled to be decommissioned by the end of 2033.