HILO, Hawaii — The manager of a pair of parcels in lower Puna is resisting a plan by Hawaii County to seize portions of that land in order to begin reopening Pohoiki Road.
As part of a four-phase plan to restore lower Puna roads and waterlines severed by the 2018 Kilauea eruption, the Department of Public Works needs to widen a stretch of Pohoiki Road. The department has secured agreements with most private property owners along the road granting the county right of access to complete the road restoration.
However, the county was not able to secure such an agreement with Kapoho Land and Development Co. Ltd., the owner of a pair of parcels totaling 660 acres that are adjacent to the road.
Lacking that agreement, the county is seeking to initiate eminent domain proceedings against the two properties — eminent domain, also called condemnation, allows a government to take private property for public use.
But a manager for Kapoho Land and Development told the County Council on Wednesday that the property owners had never been contacted for negotiating rights of entry in the first place.
“There have been no conversations, meetings or negotiations for any … of the upper Pohoiki lands,” said A. Lono Lyman on Wednesday.
Lyman, a former county planning director, added that Kapoho Land and Development would have been open to negotiations had the county reached out, but he said he only heard about the council resolution authorizing the eminent domain proceedings through Puna’s “coconut wireless.”
“The last I had heard was from (former DPW Engineering Division Chief) Ben Ishii before he retired,” Lyman later told the Tribune-Herald. “He told me the county didn’t need this land for Pohoiki.”
While the smaller of the parcels is largely unused, the larger of the two — which is 557 acres in size — houses some parts of the Puna Geothermal Venture facility, which Lyman said is through an arrangement with PGV parent company Ormat Technologies.
That arrangement, Lyman went on, could further complicate any county use of the land.
Lyman said DPW Director Steve Pause had reached out to him in January — something Pause confirmed at Wednesday’s meeting — but Lyman said that conversation did not involve negotiations regarding the Pohoiki parcels.
But Pause told the council on Wednesday that DPW had interacted with Lyman on multiple occasions in 2022 and 2023, and came to the conclusion that he would be unwilling to cooperate with the county.
“We received communication … from Mr. Lyman that indicates that he would be reluctant to provide any right of entry or any property associated with the lava restoration projects,” Pause said. “He did not specifically identify these two parcels, but there was a list of seven or eight other parcels. So, we took that as meaning that … he was not willing to work with us on right of entry, so we pursued this path.”
Pause said the necessary work is fairly minor, only involving grading and slope cutbacks on less than a single acre from the combined parcels.
“This is, in my mind, a fairly simple project,” Pause said. “We’re looking for 15 feet of property along that road on both sides, and … I believe a simple right of entry could solve this.”
Puna Councilwoman Ashley Kierkiewicz was rueful, saying it was unfortunate that the county’s interests conflict with Lyman’s, but added the project is vital for the Puna community.
“I’m really sorry that it’s come to this,” Kierkiewicz said during the meeting. “I hope there is still some way for us to mend relationships with Mr. Lyman … but our community wants and needs to see the restoration of this critical infrastructure.”
Kierkiewicz urged Pause and DPW to meet with Lyman for “relationship repair.”
The council later voted unanimously to approve the resolution on first reading.
But Lyman suggested he intends to fight the county on the matter, saying eminent domain is a litigious process.
“I was planning director between 1984 and 1988, I’ve been sued six times, and I won all of them,” Lyman said. “I’m not a wilting violet, let me put it that way.”
Email Michael Brestovansky at mbrestovansky@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
