Two land preservation projects — one called a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and the other offering hope of a new way to deal with the excruciating problem of protecting human remains — have passed an important milestone and are moving forward.

The proposals, which both entail land purchases on Oʻahu, received the green light last week from the city’s Clean Water and Natural Lands Advisory Commission.

Ke Kīpuka o Kalaeuila is the largest single surviving tract of open coastal land on Oʻahu, a 171-acre site in Kahuku adjacent to the James Campbell National Wildlife Refuge. Conservationists have described it as “an incredible gem,” and envision the site as a potentially helping form a coastal trail along much of the North Shore, when connected with other publicly owned properties by easements across intervening land.

The second property is a 2.9-acre parcel in eastern Honolulu, long known as a hub of traditional Hawaiian burials, including some made within sacred caves. In 2018 a developer received city planning permits for construction of high-end luxury homes there. Supporters jumped to the site’s rescue when the bulldozers turned up, and they formed a nonprofit group, Pu‘uhonua o Wailupe, to try to defend it.

A Special Commentary Project

Civil Beat is focusing on transparency, accountability and ethics in government and other institutions. Help us by sending ideas and anecdotes to sunshine@civilbeat.org.

Read More

The CWLN commission, a volunteer panel that advises the city on which preservation proposals are worthy of public support, voted unanimously last week to recommend that the City Council approve funding for the two sites.

Under the City Charter, one-half of 1% of annual real property tax revenues is appropriated to the water and lands fund.

The program has come under public scrutiny because the balance in the account had ballooned to more than $70 million, increasing by $8 million to $9 million annually, but few projects have been funded in the past few years. Critics have questioned the commission’s slow processes and also whether it was protecting enough historic properties.

The commission went 13 months without meeting at all, from January 2024 to February 2025, while applicants pleaded with members to take action on their proposals. Commission minutes indicate that city officials were reorganizing and overhauling procedures, transferring responsibility for the work from the Honolulu office of Budget and Fiscal Services to the Department of Land Management.

In a statement, city officials said the transfer to a new conservation office within the DLM, established last year, has given the fund dedicated staffing that it previously lacked. 

They added that public land acquisitions projects can take years to come to fruition because they require extensive due diligence and coordination. They must also meet environmental review requirements, title reviews and ensure full government compliance before funding can be awarded and a transaction can close.

The program now has a pipeline of potential projects representing some 2,000 acres of land and staff expects to close on $11 million in new conservation acquisitions this year alone, city officials said. 

A new chair, Kahi Pacarro, took over the panel’s leadership in November and has made it clear that he wants things to move more quickly. Pacarro is also a candidate for the Legislature in House District 19, which stretches from Hawaiʻi Kai through ʻĀina Haina.

Friday’s action shows them picking up the pace.

The commission awarded $14 million toward the Kahuku project, which is backed by a collaboration of the North Shore Community Land Trust, the Trust for Public Land and the Office of Hawaiian Affairs. 

Located at 56-1081 Kamehameha Highway, such a large surviving oceanfront parcel is so rare that it has been hard to find similar properties for price comparison to establish a market value for it. Advocates believe they can buy it for about $21 million. They have received $3 million in funding from the state Legacy Lands Commission and expect to receive money also from the U.S. Department of Defense, which operates the Kahuku Training Area there and wants to see the area shielded from encroachment by developers.

Nick Kawelakai Farrant, a stewardship and restoration specialist for the North Shore Community Land Trust, told the commission it was a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” to buy the property, which he said is valuable both environmentally and culturally.

Reyna Hayashi, a project manager for the Trust for Public Land, called the site “an incredible gem.”

Commissioner Susan Fong raved about the project as she voted to approve it for funding.

“What an honor to be able to participate in this potential opportunity to secure this sacred area in perpetuity,” she said. “To me it’s like a really amazing project and an example of why the Clean Water and Natural Lands fund exists.”

The property owner is actively marketing it, but is willing to sell it to preservationists if they can reach an agreement on the purchase price.

The Wailupe site, located at 5203 Keikilani Circle, near Waiʻalae Iki, was long known as the site of interment and burial caves, including one that included funerary objects and a canoe. The commission voted to give Pu’uhonua o Wailupe $7 million to purchase the property, in collaboration with the Office of Hawaiian Affairs.

The developer, Kent Untermann, now wishes to sell it to them at that price. In the meantime, however, the property is being marketed on Zillow as a development opportunity with ocean views, “great for a large singular estate.” 

Healani Sonoda-Pale, a Pu’uhonua o Wailupe board member, pressed the commission and city to move quickly.

“The opportunity is time-sensitive,” she said. “Delaying action risks the value increasing and/or transfer to a less cooperative owner.”

Influential Honolulu City Council member Esther Kiaʻāina, who chairs the city’s zoning and planning committee, attended the meeting and signaled that both funding proposals would sail easily through city council review.

She first voiced support for the North Shore purchase and said she will introduce it on the council agenda very soon.

“This parcel is very vulnerable to private acquisition and we need to send a message to the owners that the city and county are prepared to take this next step,” she said.

She had previously questioned whether the advisory commission was directing too much money to the North Shore for that project while other city districts got much less support, according to commission meeting minutes from Nov. 6, 2025.

Kiaʻāina has also proposed that more historic sites be made eligible for purchase through the use of clean water and lands funds. She sought an amendment, Proposal 148, to the City Charter to that effect, as part of the once-a-decade charter amendment process underway now.

At the meeting Friday, she acknowledged that though her proposed amendment might not succeed because of what she called complications in the amendment process, she believes that the commission has the power to do more for the preservation of historic land as part of its conservation mission.

She said the Wailupe project is a good example of the kind of thing she envisions, including better preservations of spaces containing human remains, or iwi kūpuna. The project’s supporters hope to use the site not just for existing remains but also as a safe haven and relocation depository for iwi kūpuna that are exposed through shore erosion or other inadvertent discovery, where there are no appropriate nearby resting places.

“This could potentially be a model for preservation of iwi kūpuna throughout the island,” she said.

The city’s Clean Water and Natural Lands Advisory Commission mirrors a program operated by the state called the Legacy Lands Commission. Similar programs operate on Maui, Hawaiʻi island and Kauaʻi. 

At the meeting, the Oʻahu commission also approved a set of rules that will permit stewardship funds to go to maintenance and upkeep of land parcels it had previously approved for preservation and purchase. The 13 properties that were purchased with these taxpayer funds include Kahuku Golf Course, Sunset Ranch, Turtle Bay Makai and Paiko Ridge.

The initial grants for these supplementary funds will be capped at $50,000, at least in the first year but may be increased if more funding is available.

Pacarro urged city officials to move quickly to dispense the money, which he said the nonprofits caring for the properties desperately need for operating expenses, salaries and equipment.

“We have groups that could use the money immediately,” he told city officials at the meeting. “Is there any way to expedite the funds?”

City officials said that it will take a while because this is a new program being established and there are procedural hurdles ahead but that they would try to push things along.