After an extremely one-sided debate over the fate of state land adjoining the Pacific Missile Range Facility at the Kalaheo Elementary School Thursday evening, residents expressed confusion and bitterness at the Navy base’s purpose in establishing “a passive encroachment buffer.”
The Pacific Missile Range Facility is requesting a lease of 485 acres of land, most located on the eastern border of PMRF, and is asking to establish a 6,000-acre “passive encroachment buffer” zone in most of the north end of the Mana Plain.
In all, 37 speakers and over 300 people came out to ask the Department of Land and Natural Resources to deny the base’s request, said Lynn McCrory, Kaua‘i board member for the DLNR.
“There doesn’t appear to be any support for the proposal,” said McCrory, who stayed for the entire three-hour meeting, taking notes throughout.
“I expected to see some PMRF personnel there and testifying,” she said. “I expected to see some support for their proposals.
“What surprised me was people coming in from across the island. This says to me that this is obviously an island-wide problem,” she said.
The 37 speakers represented opposition from Hanalei to Kekaha, and included politicians, Hawaiian activists, environmental groups, surfers, fishermen, and other concerned citizens. Even a former Big Island county councilwoman came to show her support for the opposition.
But not one uniformed Navy officer from PMRF attended.
Instead, Stanford B.C. Yuen, an Executive Assistant from the Intergovernmental Affairs Office, Randy Young, a lawyer who represents the Navy at Pacific Division Facility Engineering Command, and Cheryl Connett, a Navy realty specialist, flew over from O‘ahu to lay out the reasons why the base wants the buffer and the lease.
“The reason why there wasn’t a Navy uniform member present was because the issue was a real-estate issue, so we sent subject-matter experts, the experts most familiar with the project,” said Agnes Tauyan, spokeswoman at the Navy Region Public Affairs Office, and a meeting attendee.
Yuen laid out nine “facts” about the land, both the lease and the buffer zone.
He said that the Navy will not build or expand onto the buffer. Access to Polihale state park, hunting, Department of Hawaiian Home Land lands, and the mountains will not be affected. The buffer is so the Navy has a say in the development of the land outside its gates, that any development is compatible with its needs. These include the lack of lights and energy usage that takes place now with the agriculture fields surrounding the base.
“The set-aside is nothing more than (the Navy) participating in land planning,” said Yuen.
Yuen added that the 415-acre lease is so that the Navy will be able to control and operate the drainage pumps that keep Mana Plain and the agricultural fields there from flooding and returning to its natural wetlands state.
However, on Friday, McCrory still had questions that the Navy representatives at the meeting did not answer, she said.
One question, she said, was what exactly the “passive encroachment buffer” meant. As speakers, such as a representative from the Sierra Club and Ray Chuan of the Limu Coalition brought up, controlling the zoning of the land is up to the both the DLNR and the Kaua‘i Planning Commission. PMRF officials could fight any development of the land through the normal channels.
Yuen answered that the base needs the buffer for years down the line, using the Lihu‘e to Wailua contra-flow lane as an example. He said that it would have been hard to believe that, a number of years ago, there would ever be a need for a contra-flow lane. And no one would have thought years ago, that Kekaha Sugar Company would not be cultivating that land, he said.
“It’s not the ability to dictate to anybody. We’re the federal government. Sometimes we don’t hear about things,” said Yuen.
Vaughn Wilson, a Hanapepe resident, worried about the future as well. He said that if the buffer zone goes through, there will only be three parcels of land beyond Kekaha that the base would not control, notably remaining land held by Kekaha Sugar Company, Polihale State Park, and the bird sanctuary that borders PMRF on its southern edge. He worried that, in the future, these parcels “will be gobbled up by the military.”
He said he had a vision where the Barking Sands beachfront is private, open only to military personnel and defense contractors.
Many other speakers expressed their distrust with the PMRF, especially with its restriction of beach access to Major’s Bay.
The original executive order in 1940 guaranteed access to the beach except in times of bombing, said Raymond Mierta.
“That’s an (executive order) you are already violating,” said Mierta. “What’s to say you won’t violate” the buffer?
“The base needs some limits. It has to live with the people here,” he said.
Greg Holtzman, who said that the base pays $156 for 1,800 acres of land in an add-on lease to the original executive order, got around 200 signatures for each of two petitions passed around at the meeting.
The two petitions, addressed to the DLNR, asked that all formal and informational meetings about this issue be held on Kaua‘i. The other petition demands that Hawaii state beaches be returned to the people of Kaua‘i and that the DLNR conducts an investigation into how PMRF “took” the beaches belonging to the state and the people of Kaua‘i, he said Friday.
Kaua‘i residents can still voice their opinion on the lease and the buffer zone. Comments, which will be used as testimony and passed on to the DLNR board, can be sent to: Deidre S. Mamiya, Administrator; DLNR; Land Division; P.O. Box 621, Honolulu, HI, 96809.
Staff writer Tom Finnegan can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 226)
