Hawaiian Homes Commissioner Tom Contrades met with 40 residents in Anahola this week to discuss potential uses for 3,000 acres in Anahola.
During a Tuesday meeting at the Anahola Clubhouse, Contrades heard suggestions to build a golf course and to use land for horse and cattle grazing and use about 50 acres to grow native trees, according to Marie Torio, a community leader in Anahola.
The available use of the 3,000 acres opens up opportunities for economic self-sufficiency for Hawaiians in Anahola, the largest Native Hawaiian community on Kaua’i.
The land will become available when Amfac’s lease with the state Department of Land and Natural Resources expires this year. The land will then revert to the control of the state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands.
DLNR’s control of the land goes back to the territorial days when the then-commissioner of public lands controlled DHHL land not used for residential purposes, according to Kenneth H. Toguchi, a public information specialist with the DHHL on O’ahu.
When Hawai’i became a state in 1959, the commissioner of public lands became chairman of the board of DLNR, which issued the lease of the 3,000 acres to Amfac, Toguchi said.
With the lease about to expire, the land returns to the control of DHHL, Toguchi said.
Whether any parts of the 3,000 acres will be developed in the near future is up in the air, Torio said.
In the past, reservoirs mauka of Anahola fed by the Kanehu Stream provided water for plantations and for farmers in Anahola.
Today, the reservoirs are dry, the result of diversions to private developers in the area, according to Torio.
DHHL also has rights to use the water, but the department is not cognizant of the extent of the water diversion, Torio contends.
At the meeting, Contrades promoted the idea of having a non-profit group develop a use plan for the land when and if it is used, Torio said.
“His idea is to make it like what happened on (DHHL) land in Moloka’i, where a non-profit group (including Native Hawaiians) decided how to use the land,” Torio said. “He feels (people in) Anahola should be able to do the same, particularly if there are the right people to do it.”
Contrades was also given some information about “Project Faith,” a proposed $16 million-plus plan created by the Anahola Homesteaders Council to transform 17 acres in Anahola into a cultural and business center.
A main thrust behind the project is enable Hawaiians in Anahola to achieve economic self-sufficiency.
Other Hawaiians have proposed similar projects, but Project Faith, its proponents say, is the largest one of its kind to date.
The project is aimed at creating jobs, furthering Hawaiian entrepreneurship and providing facilities for education and training and housing for the kupuna.
The project also envisions health care, human services, recreational and business service.
Planning for Project Faith started in 1998, with work to be anticipated to be completed by 2008.
Jimmy Torio, his wife, Sam Okami, chairman of the Homesteaders Council, are trying to negotiate a DHHL lease to use the 17-acre site for the project.
Toguchi said he was not aware of all the details of the plan, but said what proponents of Project Faith propose should march in step with DHHL plans for the 3,000 acres.
