{"id":641,"date":"2026-06-18T10:06:31","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T10:06:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movingtohawaiiguide.com\/?p=641"},"modified":"2026-06-18T10:06:31","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T10:06:31","slug":"council-postpones-eminent-domain-resolution-targeting-puna-land","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movingtohawaiiguide.com\/?p=641","title":{"rendered":"Council postpones eminent domain resolution targeting Puna land"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Hawaii County Council on Wednesday agreed to postpone a resolution calling for the acquisition of 3.74 acres of coastal Puna land using eminent domain to widen Government Beach Road \u2014 a measure described by opposition testifiers as \u201ccriminal\u201d and an attempt to \u201ctrample\u201d on the landowner\u2019s rights.<\/p>\n

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The Hawaii County Council on Wednesday agreed to postpone a resolution calling for the acquisition of 3.74 acres of coastal Puna land using eminent domain to widen Government Beach Road \u2014 a measure described by opposition testifiers as \u201ccriminal\u201d and an attempt to \u201ctrample\u201d on the landowner\u2019s rights.<\/p>\n

Council members voted 8-0 in favor of deferring the matter until their Aug. 5 meeting, giving the Department of Public Works roughly a month and a half to finish striking a deal with the owner in order to keep the case out of court. Kona Councilwoman Rebecca Villegas was absent and excused.<\/p>\n

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Resolution 567-26 would authorize the county\u2019s condemnation and acquisition of a 55-foot wide, 1.5-mile-long thin strip of land running along the edge of two separate parcels located in the Keonepoko Iki subdivision just north of the Hawaiian Shores neighborhood from its owner, Lum Family Enterprises LLC. Together, the two parcels in question add up to roughly 230 acres.<\/p>\n

Introduced by the Office of the Corporation Counsel, the resolution is the final step in a decade-long, protracted fight over the land, which began in 2014 when the county laid asphalt outside of the road\u2019s right of way onto private property on the western side of Government Beach Road.<\/p>\n

Wayland Lum is the manager of Lum Family Enterprises and travels back and forth between Oahu and his working ranch homestead along the Puna Coast. Lum is a 72-year-old organic farmer and rancher whose land originally belonged to his grandfather and has been in the family since the early 1920s.<\/p>\n

Lum testified at Wednesday\u2019s meeting, for which Chair Holeka Inaba waived the usual three-minute time limit. The kupuna told the council members stories from his childhood of growing up on the land and working hard to improve it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you are born there, and there\u2019s no one there, and the whole place is really pono \u2014 it\u2019s not like that anymore,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s very sad. I\u2019m sure my grandparents and parents would not be happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

He recounted how in late 2024 negotiations with DPW to allow the county to upgrade the road while also committing to making security improvements were progressing. Those talks, he said, were derailed by the lead-up to the mayoral race, which saw former Mayor Mitch Roth replaced by current Mayor Kimo Alameda \u2014 who, according to Lum, wasn\u2019t interested in negotiating.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had been working on this for a long time,\u201d Lum said. \u201cWe were working out the final segments of it, and \u2026 at the time, the mayor\u2019s race was going on, and we kind of switched gears. (Corporation Counsel Sinclair Salas-Ferguson) got involved on the legal side, and what we had agreed on verbally and were working on got thrown out the window.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those thwarted discussions involved Lum\u2019s demands for things like lighting and concrete barricades to cut down on instances of trespassing, livestock slaughter, rubbish dumping and abandoned vehicles on his property.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWhenever you widen the road there, it becomes \u2026 an environment and a situation for illegal activity during the night,\u201d he said. \u201cYou folks aren\u2019t there at night when we\u2019re there \u2014 it\u2019s not pretty.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wayland Lum\u2019s brother Erland Lum also testified in person at the meeting, saying that the case is about more than just land.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe property is not simply real estate to our family,\u201d Erland Lum said. \u201cIt is our heritage, our livelihood and the legacy left to us by our grandparents. I respectfully ask the council to consider the history of this land, the impact this proposed acquisition will have on our family, and the precedent it may establish for property owners throughout Hawaii.\u201d<\/p>\n

Friends and extended family of the Lums also spoke before the council.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo have it be in a situation where it\u2019s being considered for eminent domain is criminal in my opinion,\u201d said the Lums\u2019 brother-in-law Robert Nash. \u201cI don\u2019t think that that is the way that Hawaii operates, unless there\u2019s a special interest group that is involved in this endeavor.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Lums\u2019 childhood friend and Honolulu attorney Franklin \u201cDon\u201d Pacarro Jr. asked why the county has opted to \u201ctrample on these people\u2019s rights.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom my understanding, the county paved \u2026 over their property in 2014 \u2014 an improper taking then and still now,\u201d Pacarro said. \u201cNo hearing, no due process rights. Till this day, for 12 years, no due process rights, and the courts will overturn that for violating somebody\u2019s due process rights. In law, we call that \u2018coming in with unclean hands.\u2019 The county came with unclean hands \u2014 wrong already.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a tragedy when I see Hawaiians losing their lands,\u201d Pacarro added. \u201cIt\u2019s been happening from the government from the very beginning.\u201d<\/p>\n

After testimony wrapped up, Puna Councilwoman Ashley Kierkiewicz expressed remorse about communication breakdowns and for the county\u2019s abandoning of negotiations and moving instead to seize the Lums\u2019 land by force.<\/p>\n

\u201cI also want to apologize on behalf of the county for how all of this has been handled,\u201d Kierkiewicz said. \u201cI was very distressed to learn that there was no communication from the county to alert the ohana that this was going to be agendized on the council \u2014 their lawyer had to read about it in the paper. So, I apologize for the handling of this situation, and I hope that this is another opportunity for our county \u2014 Public Works \u2014 to learn how to do things better.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust because a solution originated in a prior administration doesn\u2019t mean that we shouldn\u2019t honor it in a new administration,\u201d she added. \u201cA promise is a promise on behalf of the county.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Email Stefan Verbano at stefan.verbano@hawaiitribune-herald.com.\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Council postpones eminent domain resolution targeting Puna land – Hawaii News | Hawaii Tribune-Herald<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":640,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nCouncil postpones eminent domain resolution targeting Puna land - Moving to Hawaii Guide<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/movingtohawaiiguide.com\/?p=641\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Council postpones eminent domain resolution targeting Puna land - Moving to Hawaii Guide\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Council postpones eminent domain resolution targeting Puna land - 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