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The road to resolution on Mauna Kea just got longer — or at least bumpier. Nobody can even agree on who owns the road, to begin with.
The latest twist in the standoff over the construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope has developed over a 1995 settlement between the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands and the state, over construction of the road across DHHL land, without compensation.
Bottom line of that ceded-lands deal: The state would take ownership of the land beneath the access road from DHHL in exchange for another parcel — but that land swap has yet to be done.
Exactly what this means from a legal standpoint is unsettled, but it’s plainly being eyed by TMT opponents as a new route to challenge the project.
The issue was raised Wednesday at a legislative briefing by state Sen. Kai Kahele, whose reading of the 24-year-old legislation, Act 14, is that the land still belongs to DHHL, and that the state Department of Transportation does not control the road. This is the road by which astronomy crews at the existing telescopes come and go, and on which construction gear for the TMT would pass.
DHHL itself is not asserting ownership. Its official written statement: “Mauna Kea Access Road is a public road under the control and jurisdiction of the state Department of Transportation (DOT). It is Route 210 in the DOT’s State Highway System.”
But will its beneficiaries lay a claim? In any case, 24 years to tie up this loose end is unacceptable. The state must move quickly to do so.
