A Maui resident has sued the state, Maui County and a developer to stop construction of a housing subdivision after learning that at least 182 Native Hawaiian burials have been disturbed by the project.

Jennifer Ahia filed the complaint in state Circuit Court Tuesday to stop work on The Parkways at Maui Lani.

Ahia’s complaint, prepared by the Native Hawaiian Legal Corp., alleges the project’s developer, an affiliate of Towne Development of Hawaii Inc., is violating state historic preservation law intended to protect ancient Hawaiian burials.

The lawsuit also claims the state and county didn’t follow the law either, and that the developer inadequately surveyed the Central Maui subdivision site for burials despite a significant likelihood of their presence.

“(These) defendants have ignored the clear sequential steps required under administrative rules of the historic preservation review process,” the complaint said. “Instead, they have adopted an ad hoc, build it till you hit it approach to historic preservation.”

The state Department of Land and Natural Resources, which is in charge of historic preservation laws through its State Historic Preservation Division, said it doesn’t comment on pending litigation.

Maui County officials didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Towne, a firm owned by Wisconsin-based Zilber Ltd., also didn’t comment despite requests.

The Parkways subdivision represents the sixth phase of the master-planned Maui Lani community that began in the 1990s and covers 1,000 acres on the outskirts of Wailuku and Kahului.

Ahia’s lawsuit and attorney David Kopper said the burials were disturbed over 10 years of construction work in a roughly 15-acre final piece of the 45-acre Parkways subdivision that borders The Dunes at Maui Lani Golf Course.

This last piece of the Parkways is to include about 70 single-family homes, and the plaintiff’s attorneys believe most of the construction to date has been grading and infrastructure work.

The lawsuit argues that an archaeological survey, which Towne did for the 45-acre site by digging 52 test trenches, was inadequate given that the land comprising old sand dunes was known to contain burials.

Trenching discovered just one burial site containing five burial features, though three other burial sites on the 45 acres had been previously documented in state records, the lawsuit said.

If more testing had been done, Towne could have better known where burials were and could have designed its project to avoid them, the lawsuit contends.

“Construction continues while burials are hit or discovered,” Kopper said in a statement. “If the law was followed, all parties would know where to build, if at all.”

Another allegation in the lawsuit is that the developer didn’t follow a monitoring plan approved by the State Historic Preservation Division, and that a new monitoring plan approved last year didn’t involve consultation with the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and the Maui/Lanai Island Burial Council as required by law.

Maui County raised concerns in 2017 about the number of burials disturbed and a year ago suspended project grading permits, but the preservation division required only the new monitoring plan that was approved in June instead of requiring a new survey, the lawsuit said.

Since construction resumed last year, 12 burials have been disturbed, Ahia’s complaint said.

The Native Hawaiian Legal Corp. obtained the burial counts after requesting documents from the preservation division last year.

Ahia, who is recognized by the state as a cultural descendent of the disturbed burials, said in a statement that the lawsuit was necessary because burials weren’t being respected.

“It’s sad that we have to take this route, but after decades of desecration, we must use every avenue available to secure protection for our iwi kupuna (bones of ancestors),” she said. “The erasure of kanaka maoli (native population) in our own homelands has become so normalized many barely notice. But we are still resisting the forces that would have our sacred burial grounds reduced to developments that destroy our history and collective mana (spiritual power).”

The Native Hawaiian Legal Corp. plans to seek an emergency injunction halting construction before arguments in the case are taken up in court.