Kahana Valley State Park — all 5,000-plus acres of it — is state land, purchased with taxpayer funds.

As such, all of the Kahana lands are public lands protected by Article XI, Section 5 of the Hawaii State Constitution.

By a quirk of history, some 28 families, some of whom were living within the confines of Kahana when the state condemned and acquired it several decades ago, were granted leases by the state in the mid-’90s.

Six families have lived in Kahana for many years as squatters — more politely known as "resident non-lessees." After many years of trying to work with these six families, the state finally decided to evict them some two years ago.

There were protests. The politicians came in, held meetings with lessees and others and dreamed up the idea of enacting legislation that would put the evictions on hold for two years and establish a planning council to develop — once again — a master plan.

The legislation enacted two years ago was vetoed by the governor and then overridden by the Legislature. I have a formal legal opinion that says that the legislation (known as Act 15) is unconstitutional. The issue has yet to be taken to court.

The planning council was not allocated any money and has no staff, no attorney to advise it, no office and no computers or furniture.

The planning council’s mandate is to engage in bottom-up participation by lessees and others living in the park.

Object: Develop a master plan — another one in a long line of plans going back a quarter of a century or more.

As a resident of Kahana (married to a bona fide lessee) I have attended almost every meeting of the council. It is faced with enormous difficulties. Most of the lessees in Kahana are simply not interested in what the council is trying to do and have boycotted almost all of its meetings.

Some of the compelling issues before the people of Kahana and of this state, since Kahana is owned by the taxpayers of Hawaii, are as follows:

» If more leases are to be issued, how many more and who will be eligible to get them?

» In these difficult economic times, where is the money to come from for infrastructure for new residential lots, if such lots are to be identified and created?

» In the past the state helped get lessees $50,000 loans at 3 percent, 30-year mortgages, to build houses on their lots. Should this kind of subsidy continue?

» There is a strong feeling in Kahana among bona fide lessees that if any new leases are to be offered, then they have to be offered to everyone across the board.

» Lessees are concerned that their leases are terminal. All leases will end in 2060. There is no provision for renewal — so far.

» The existing lease is such that the 10,000-square-foot residential lots cannot be used as collateral to borrow against for home improvements, home completion or anything else — a provision that makes the Kahana leases unique in the state of Hawaii.

» Every year that goes by, the equity that lessees have in their homes declines even as property taxes and property values go up.

Moreover, lessees cannot sell their homes at fair market value or the equity they have in the number of years left on their leases. If you have a home valued at, say, $400,000, you can only sell it for $65,000 — so says the state.

Those lessees who understand this kind of restriction are deeply resentful: It confines them to being wards of the state and leaves them little room in which to plan their lives and to protect intergenerational equity — what they can pass on to future generations.

Jim Anthony, a longtime Kahana resident, is a Pacific historian and political scientist. For the past 20 years he has been executive director of Hawaii-Laieikawai Association Inc., a nonprofit group specializing in issues related to water, the environment and Hawaiian culture.