LIHUE — The Department of Hawaiian Homelands executive board will make its decision Friday on whether to lease 2,143 acres of Anahola lands to Green Energy Team, LLC for its proposed Anahola Renewable Energy Project. If approved, the 20-year lease
LIHUE — The Department of Hawaiian Homelands executive board will make its decision Friday on whether to lease 2,143 acres of Anahola lands to Green Energy Team, LLC for its proposed Anahola Renewable Energy Project.
If approved, the 20-year lease would allow Green Energy to clear existing albizia trees from the land — which belongs to native Hawaiians under the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act of 1920 — and establish a tree plantation to fuel its $90 million biomass-to-energy facility near Koloa.
In return, DHHL would receive monetary and other benefits, including improvements to Anahola lands, according to a June 17 letter to beneficiaries from Jobie Masagatani, chair of the department’s Hawaiian Homes Commission.
In September 2010, the DHHL received an initial proposal letter from Green Energy. The Homestead Community Development Corporation and Anahola Hawaiian Homes Association submitted a proposal for the same acreage to the DHHL in April 2012, naming Green Energy as its development partner. Then in August 2012, HHC authorized the DHHL to negotiate the lease with Green Energy, requiring it work with HCDC.
While changes have been made to the original proposal, Eric Knutzen, co-founder of Green Energy, said the objective remains the same; to clear the land to help meet Kauai’s energy needs and establish homesteading agricultural lots for Hawaiians.
During a beneficiary consultation meeting and pair of public hearings in March, the community of Anahola stood firmly against the proposal, claiming they had been kept in the dark and that Hawaiian lands should not be leased to non-Hawaiians.
Hundreds showed up during the meetings, with many providing emotional testimony against the project.
“The community cried out, ‘No, no, no,’” Joe Borden, an Anahola rancher and president of the Anahola Farmers and Ranchers Association, said Tuesday. “Why do they continue moving forward?”
While he has heard of the significant changes to the plan, which address community concerns, Borden has not seen anything in writing and remains skeptical.
“We’ve been burned too much by going on someone’s word,” he said.
Masagatani said the final decision-making meeting — originally scheduled for April 9 — was postponed due to the “overwhelming concerns” of local residents.
“We will seek to propose changes to the portions of the lease, which relate to the concerns raised,” she wrote in an April letter.
Green Energy notified HHC earlier this month that it was not able to continue negotiations beyond June 30. To accommodate their deadline, the Commission chose to modify its initial timeline, moving up both the informational meeting and decision-making date, Masagatani wrote June 17.
Changes to the proposed lease will be outlined during an informational meeting from 6:30 to 8 p.m. today at Kapaa Elementary School.
“As a result of your input in March, we were able to propose important changes to the lease terms, and I look forward to the opportunity to present this information to you next week,” Masagatani wrote.
The Commission will meet again at the school on Friday at 10 a.m. to make its decision on the lease.
Darrell Young, director of communications for the DHHL, said Monday that the department was not ready to release the updated information about the proposal.
However, newly-elected HCDC President KipuKai Kualii discussed a number of changes Tuesday, calling them “improvements.” Kualii is a board member of Hui Kakoo Aina Hoopulapula, treasurer of the Piilani Mai Ke Kai Homeowners Association, and a board member of the Anahola Hawaiian Homes Association.
First, Kualii said Green Energy will immediately clear 356 acres (up from 267 in the original proposal) in the first five years of the lease and return the land to DHHL for homesteading.
“DHHL will then be able to award 103, 2-acre subsistence agricultural leases and 14, 10-acre pastoral leases, as called for by the community in the Anahola Regional Plan,” he wrote in an email.
An additional 819 acres (down from 850) would be cleared and replanted with eucalyptus trees over the 20-year period. At the end of the lease, that land would also be returned to DHHL for additional homesteads.
The option for Green Energy to extend the lease for an additional 10 years has also been removed from the proposal, according to Kualii.
“The potential is incredible, in terms of what this could represent for people on the (DHHL) wait list,” he said.
There are currently more than 4,000 families on Kauai waiting lists (2,150 for agricultural, 298 for pastoral and 1,559 for residential), according to the DHHL website.
“DHHL has only ever awarded 47 agricultural leases once in Anahola, in 1984, and only ever awarded one pastoral lease at Puu Opai, also 30 years ago,” Kualii wrote.
In addition to clearing the land of invasive albizia, Green Energy would repair existing roads, provide annual lease revenue to the Trust, establish a Community Benefit Agreement with HCDC and AHHA, allow access to the Department of Land and Natural Resources forest reserve, and establish a 2-acre community picnic area near Kaneha Reservoir.
“Yes, we are paying, too, in having to wait,” Kualii wrote. “But the wait is now only five years instead of 30, or worse, indefinitely.”
In its Beneficiary Consultation Report, released June 14, DHHL identified and addressed eight specific areas of community concerns related to the proposed project, including mistrust for HCDC and AHHA, the 2 percent of gross revenue payment to DHHL, transparency, existing revocable permits, the length of the lease and environmental impacts.
Borden, who presented commissioners with 707 signatures against the proposal in March, questions whether the initial public hearings were just for show and if the DHHL had already made up its mind about the proposal.
“The community spoke up,” he said. “Why are we going any further?”
Borden also wonders if the Hawaiian people who actually receive leases in the future aren’t being set up for failure.
“If you ever go up there, there is zero infrastructure, no potable water, no sewage system, no power,” he said. “They’re going to get there and they have raw land.”
Borden believes Masagatani and the DHHL should listen to what the people are trying to tell them.
For more information about the upcoming meetings or proposal, or to view the Beneficiary Consultation Report, visit dhhl.hawaii.gov.
Meetings regarding the Anahola Renewable Energy Project
• Informational Meeting — 6:30 to 8 p.m. today at Kapaa Elementary School
Proposed terms of lease agreement to be presented. Members of the Hawaiian Homes Commission will be in attendance.
• Meeting of the Hawaiian Homes Commission — 10 a.m. to noon Friday at Kapaa Elementary School
Decision-making on Green Energy’s General Lease Agreement
• Chris D’Angelo, environment writer, can be reached at 245-0441 or cdangelo@thegardenisland.com.
