by Andrew Walden

According to a memo from organizers, the Nai Aupuni Aha at John Waihee’s ‘Royal Hawaiian Golf Club’ in Kailua’s Maunawili Valley has hired lots of security guards to block protesters and observers from hiking into the site.

But Resolution 79, adopted by the State House of Representatives in 2015, states that the Golf Club is built on top of a stolen Hawaiian Kingdom road.  Even after burying parts of it under fairway, Club officials and Nai Aupuni organizers do not have the legal right to keep the public—or protesters—from traversing the right of way known as ‘Old Government Road’.

Here is the text:

HOUSE RESOLUTION 79 of 2015

REQUESTING THE DEPARTMENT OF LAND AND NATURAL RESOURCES TO WORK WITH ROYAL HAWAIIAN GOLF CLUB TO DEVELOP A PLAN FOR THE MANAGEMENT AND MAINTENANCE OF OLD GOVERNMENT ROAD.

     WHEREAS, Old Government Road once connected the Pali with Waimanalo, but has since been discontinued as a public highway; and

     WHEREAS, Old Government Road is owned by the State in fee; and

     WHEREAS, through years of non-use, various parts of the Old Government Road are in disrepair and in many areas the roadway is overgrown with vegetation; and

     WHEREAS, past correspondence indicates that the State should turn over portions of the Old Government Road to an interested land owner either through a quitclaim deed or a direct sale in fee; and

     WHEREAS, on June 13, 1968, the Department of Land Utilization, City and County of Honolulu, approved a request by the Royal Hawaiian Golf Club for a conditional use permit to establish a recreational facility within the AG-1 restricted agricultural district; and

     WHEREAS, as a condition of the use permit, Royal Hawaiian Golf Club was required to provide and indicate on the approved grading plan, a pedestrian trail for public use over the project site leading from the Maunawili Estates Subdivision to Maunawili Falls; and

     WHEREAS, in meeting the requirements of the use permit, Royal Hawaiian Golf Club provided a pedestrian trail to Maunawili Falls that appears to traverse Old Government Road; and

     WHEREAS, as part of the pedestrian trail plans, Royal Hawaiian Golf Club previously indicated that they would provide a seven-car parking area for those visiting Maunawili Falls; and

     WHEREAS, since the construction of the Royal Hawaiian Golf Course, various portions of Old Government Road appear to be within the boundaries of the golf course; now, therefore,

     BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-eighth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2015, that the Department of Land and Natural Resources is requested to work with Royal Hawaiian Golf Club to locate and delineate the portions of the Old Government Road that are within the golf course development, and to develop a plan for the management and maintenance of the road alignment, including determinations of:

(1)  The location and ownership status of all portions of Old Government Road;

(2)  Whether any access easement over Old Government Road was granted to Royal Hawaiian Golf Club for any portion of the pedestrian trail to Maunawili Falls; and

(3)  Whether, if no easement exists, it would be in the best interests of the State to grant an access easement with the condition of providing a parking lot in order to provide safer access to Maunawili Falls; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Department of Land and Natural Resources is requested to submit a report on its findings and recommendations to the Legislature no later than twenty days prior to the convening of the Regular Session of 2016; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Resolution be transmitted to the Chairperson of the Board of Land and Natural Resources and the Chief Executive Officer of Royal Hawaiian Golf Club.

  *   *   *   *   * 

HR79: Text, Status (adopted in final form)

DLNR Report Nov 2015: “RHGC was required to provide and indicate on the approved grading plan, a pedestrian trail for public use over the project site leading from the Maunawili Estates Subdivision to Maunawili Falls.”

PDF: Mentions history of roads thru Maunawili, 1850s

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