A move to transform a 54-acre dredged basin intended for a boat marina in Ewa Beach into a lagoon has drawn a mix of support and opposition since the plan was announced by developer Haseko (Hawaii) Inc. last month.
Folks welcoming the change generally like the broader public uses for a lagoon, such as swimming, paddling and beach activities. On the other hand, the change has upset boaters interested in slips and ocean access as well as residents of Haseko’s Ocean Pointe and Hoakalei Resort communities who viewed the marina as a long-promised benefit.
But one man who has been a thorn in Haseko’s side isn’t quite sure whether he should be celebrating or preparing for further battle.
Michael Kumukauoha Lee was contesting Haseko’s state permit for the marina, claiming that blasting a channel through the shore would disturb or destroy a sacred burial complex for Hawaiian royalty.
Just a week before Haseko announced its lagoon plan, a hearings officer recommended that the state Board of Land and Natural Resources dismiss Lee’s complaint and allow Haseko to proceed with the marina.
But Lee isn’t accepting Haseko’s marina-to-lagoon change as a victory, because he said he suspects the developer may ultimately follow through with the marina, especially if it can’t get regulatory approvals for the lagoon.
“I’d be happy if they really don’t complete the marina, but I’m not convinced they won’t,” Lee said.
Haseko claims its decision to pursue a lagoon instead of a marina has no connection with Lee’s complaint or burials.
The developer said the economics for the marina are bad because costs to dig a channel and operate marina facilities can’t be supported by weak projected demand and revenue from boaters.
The channel would have been about 300 feet wide, 1,500 feet long and 20 feet deep. Haseko would not disclose cost and revenue projections.
“The change to a lagoon is truly being driven by our commitment to complete the project in a timely manner and fulfill our vision for a dynamic waterfront resort,” Sharene Saito Tam, vice president of Haseko Development Inc., said in a statement.
Saito Tam added that Haseko can’t comment specifically on Lee’s case because it is still pending before the Land Board.
Lee, who lives in Ewa Beach, has been an ardent opponent of Haseko, challenging aspects of the developer’s master-planned community.
Lee was instrumental in forcing Haseko to alter plans for a storm-water drainage system for Ocean Pointe, contending that the system with an ocean outfall would adversely affect offshore native seaweed, or limu, valued in Hawaiian culture as food and medicine. A state judge invalidated regulatory approvals for the system in 2008. Lee continues to fight alternate designs.
Converting the marina basin to a lagoon will affect storm-water drainage plans. But Lee opposes the marina because of burials.
A marina was supposed to be the defining element of the 1,100-acre project long known as Ewa Marina.
Plans for the marina drew heated opposition two decades ago over issues that included effects on the Ewa cap rock aquifer, archaeological sites, the reef and a popular surf break. Several organizations and individuals tried to block approvals in a 1994 contested case hearing, but Haseko ultimately prevailed.
However, plans for the marina have repeatedly been amended from the original idea to create 8.5 miles of waterways fronting homes, similar to those in Hawaii Kai.
The initial plan for 2,500 boat slips was cut to 1,500, then to as few as 600, and the acreage of the marina fell from 120 to 70, then 54.
Haseko needed Land Board approval to reduce the size of the marina to 54 acres from 70 acres by amending a state conservation district use permit that allows creation of a marina entrance channel.
Lee challenged the permit amendment in February, and the board held a contested case hearing in July.
Lee contends that the area including or near the marina entrance channel site contains a cave system carved by ground water and used by Native Hawaiians for burials long ago.
This cave system, according to Lee, contains iwi, or human bones, of Hawaiian chiefs from Oahu, Maui and Kauai.
“In those caves called Waipouli is my family — iwi kupuna,” he said at an Ewa Beach community meeting in August. “They are kings and queens of Ewa.”
Lee has drawn a family connection to one particular burial unearthed in the area in 2001. The burial was mingled with whale ivory artifacts and glass beads, suggesting a high status in Hawaiian society.
In contested case filings, Lee said the Office of Hawaiian Affairs took possession of the remains last year, and a seer communicated with the remains to identify them as Lee’s fifth great-grandmother, Chiefess Kaomileika‘ahumanu, who Lee said is the “true” mother of King Kamehameha III.
The mother of Kamehameha III recognized by historians, Keopuolani, is really the king’s hanai, or adoptive, mother, Lee said.
Local attorney Steve Jacobson, who served as hearings officer in the case, noted that three sets of iwi were discovered in or around the marina channel site — one set washed out by Hurricane Iniki in 1992, a set that eroded from the shoreline in 2007, and the 2001 set uncovered by a homeless person digging a cooking pit in the sand.
But Jacobson decided that communication with someone who died more than 200 years ago was not persuasive or credible.
“The testimony offered with respect to information (Lee) and others allegedly received from visions and/or iwi is not admissible and is not credited,” Jacobson wrote in his decision.
Another claim Lee made in his case — that Haseko broke into a burial cave complex — also was dismissed by Jacobson, who said no good evidence was presented to show such a burial complex exists. Haseko testified that it knows of no such breach.
Jacobson issued a proposed decision to dismiss Lee’s complaint on Oct. 24. His decision is subject to Land Board adoption.
Lee said he will appeal to the Hawaii Supreme Court if necessary, and has enlisted help from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs to protect burials and document caves.
“Till there’s a last blood in my body, I am going to fight them to the end,” he said at the community meeting. “This is undoubtedly the most sacred spot on Oahu, and people don’t know it.”
