Groups Must Compete To Run Taro Lo‘i

Del.icio.us

The state is stepping in to settle a years-long dispute over who may rightfully manage a taro patch in Waiahole Valley Agricultural Park.

Management of the approximately 2.5-acre patch in Lot 79 will be decided through a request-for-proposal process that will grant a one-year revocable permit to operate the wet taro field, or lo’i. Deadline is 4 p.m. Feb. 14 to submit a proposal to the Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corp.

Applicants must be able to culturally and technically maintain a lo’i and meet insurance, access, sanitation and other requirements, said Dan Davidson, HHFDC executive director. The permit holder can expect to pay a monthly fee of $200 or more, he added.

The taro patch has been run by the nonprofit Kalopaa and its predecessor, the Taro Co., which revitalized the lo’i in 1996 with the blessing of the man who held the lease at the time. When the lease expired, the land reverted to state ownership and was designated “open space.”

The Waiahole-Waikane Community Association, which represents 77 of 90 lessees in the valley, has challenged Kalopaa’s right to manage the lot because it occupies space designated for the community, and Kalopaa doesn’t pay rent.

According to its reading of state documents, Kalopaa believes it has the right to be there. The state has issued three cease-and-desist orders to Kalopaa, which said it stopped maintaining the lot on another occasion by the request of the state but had to resume work there or risk losing its crop after several months of state inaction.

Kalopaa leaders say they don’t make money managing the site but uses it to educate visiting groups of schools, nonprofit organizations and churches on the Hawaiian values of caring for the land and ecosystem, among other things.

“The use of the lo’i is agreed to be a very good use,” acknowledged Davidson. “There’s definitely dispute or differences of opinion whether they have a right to be there. We’re trying to move past that to get that all resolved.”

Kalopaa along with Waiahole Landowners’ Association, a group of some of the fee-simple landowners in valley, plans to submit a proposal, as does the WWCA.

Proposals should be sent to the HHFDC at 677 Queen St., Suite 300, Honolulu, HI 96813. Copies of the request for proposal document may be viewed at that office.

For those who prefer to take the proposal home, it may be purchased for $50 via cashier’s or certified check.

For more information, call Marlene Lemke, Real Estate Services Section chief, at 587-0510.