Kahana: what was, what is, what can be. - Legislative Reference ...

KAHANA: WHAT WAS, WHAT IS, WHAT CAN BE
$5,000,000, as the Legislature could not legally bind future legislatures to pay the
remaining costs. 48
The rejection of the State's offer to purchase did not chill the State's interest in
Kahana. The State then moved to condemn the property for park purposes for the
same $5,000,000 price, and paid it off in five annual installments for use as a park. By
1969, the State had paid the last installment and owned Kahana free and clear. 49 Some
of the funding for Kahana came from federal funds. Public Law 87-70 (as amended by
P.L. 89-174), Title VII, sections 702(a) and 704 "prohibited changes in the use of the
lands purchased without permission of the federal Secretary of Housing and Urban
Development." 50 This language would become crucial in future years as the State
thrashed around, trying to figure out what to do with Kahana now that it had it.
Hulten's report was simultaneously good and bad for Kahana. It seems to have
been the ultimate impetus for the State's condemnation of the land, which resulted in
the preservation of the only intact ahupua`a left in the State. 51 However, the legacy of
Hulten's wildly-overblown plans haunted state planning for Kahana for decades, as
discussed in the next chapter, resulting in a series of lost opportunities for Kahana.
Synopsis
The ahupua`a of Kahana, like all land in Hawai`i prior to the Great Mahele of
1846, belonged to the King. The ahupua`a sustained an estimated population of 600 –
1,000 people at the time of the arrival of Captain Cook, and about 200 at the time of the
Great Mahele. After the Mahele, the maka`âinana obtained 33 parcels, small in total
size but significant in value, and the vast remainder of the ahupua`a was granted to
Keohokâlole, mother of the future King David Kalâkaua and Queen Lili`uokalani.
In 1874, a hui of Hawaiian members of the Church of Latter Day Saints moved to
acquire Keohokâlole's ahupua`a interest, and for a while they were able to run it much
like a traditional Hawaiian tenure. However, both their shares, and the separate
maka`âinana interests, were gradually either mortgaged and foreclosed upon, or sold
outright. Mary Foster, a socially prominent part-Hawaiian woman, a member of the
Robinson family, ended up with the vast majority of shares after battles for control with
Kâne`ohe Ranch and Lincoln McCandless.
After Mary Foster's death in 1930, her estate continued to hold the ahupua`a.
Kahana's residents were mostly Hawaiian, but included a mixture of Chinese, Filipino,
and other ethnic groups. The population dwindled until there were insufficient numbers
to maintain the Huilua Fishpond and the taro lo`i. There were several offers for Kahana
over the years, but no action until 1965 when then state Senator John Hulten produced
a report on Kahana for the Department of Land and Natural Resources hyping Kahana's
potential, recommending significant development, including a regional park, seashore
water sports, one thousand camping sites, salt and freshwater fishing, and a tropical
botanical garden, that would net a million visits a year.
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