In September 2003, Ocean Villa at Kahaluu Bay, aka, Towne Development out of Milwaukee, obtained rights to purchase the property of 42 acres in Kahaluu from a third party who entered into a purchase contract with Kamehameha Investment Corp. The
In September 2003, Ocean Villa at Kahaluu Bay, aka, Towne Development out of Milwaukee, obtained rights to purchase the property of 42 acres in Kahaluu from a third party who entered into a purchase contract with Kamehameha Investment Corp. The sale is contingent in regard to be able to build the timeshares. It’s been 13 years since, and last year it seemed to be a sudden urgency to get this project approved.
Princess Pauahi is one of Hawaii’s most important philanthropists. As an alii (royal), the last descendent of the Kamehameha line, she held the largest private landownership in the islands, owning 9 percent of Hawaii’s total acreage across the island chain. In 1887, as designated by her will, she established Kamehameha Schools to bring educational opportunities to preserve, improve and perpetuate the well-being of future generations of Native Hawaiians, academically and culturally.
National Kahaluu Historic District #74000713 State Inventory of Historic Places # 50-10-37-4150, 1974, states: Historic Preservation is the effort to preserve and protect sites, buildings, objects, landscaping and district of historic significance. Historic preservation includes agricultural and landscapes, important for a community that creates a sense of place for a community.
It connects us to the past, but they can also connect us to the present and each other. Preserved for enjoyment, education, and inspiration of all.
This piece of land is the only one left untouched by a bulldozer. Already the makai portions were destroyed with the Kona Lagoon, and Keauhou Beach Hotel. Now Kamehameha Schools is trying to restore what is already destroyed. Restore what reads in the historic nomination was “the mere fact that so many heiau exist in this district shows the complexity of Hawaiian society, for it must have taken literally thousands and thousands of man days to build them, since all are massive engineering feats of mortarless stonework. Almost all are in good condition and have been relatively untouched by the ravages of time and urban development.”
The historic nomination goes on to read, after careful consideration, Kahaluu ahupuaa was one of the major importance in Hawaiian cultural and history before European contact, for heiau, social, political and supernatural factors. Kahaluu is an excellent foil and counterfoil for the intensive study of ancient Hawaiian culture and human ecology.”
Furthermore, documentary research at the conclusion of his 1929-30 survey, Reinecke opined that the ahupuaa of Kahaluu probably had the greatest number of archaeological sites to be found anywhere on the island. Kahaluu ahupuaa has legendary association with chiefly occupation estimated to date form the early AD 1600s. The dense concentration of heiau and large elite residences in and around coastal Kahaluu are attributed to the presence of various ruling chiefs.
A contested hearing is now set for April 17 and 18, 2017 at 9:30 a.m. at the West Hawaii Civic Center, Building A.
Simmy McMichael is a resident of Kailua-Kona
