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<br /> 270 LAND AND POWER IN HAWAII - 8 /Hawaii:Subdividing Lava Fields 271
<br /> Developer Norman Inaba had a project in South Kona called Milolii down a steepish mountain side to a lava homesite,there seemed little likeli-
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<br /> Beach Lots Subdivision,for which Sen. George Ariyoshi prepared the part- hood of many people ever living there.
<br /> nership papers as he had for Royal Gardens.As with Royal Gardens,Ariyo- How could a reasonable balance sheet be drawn up between Inaba's de-
<br /> shi took as his fee a limited partnership interest worth$1,000. velopment at Milolii and the Hawaiian village?
<br /> • Abutting the subdivision on the north was a lava flow that in 1926 wiped On the one hand, had Inaba's promises materialized-1,000 house lots
<br /> out the Hawaiian fishing village of Hoopuloa. The residents of the village occupied by retired military people abutting 60-70 Hawaiians—the subdi-
<br /> who chose to remain in the immediate area moved into another tiny village, vision could well have obliterated the last Hawaiian village of its kind,mean-
<br /> on territorial government land a little to the south. . ing that this kind of life would have become extinct.
<br /> This village was called Milolii.It still existed in the 1980s,home to 60-70 On the other hand, all the subdivision ever amounted to was a set of
<br /> people, mostly Hawaiian and part-Hawaiian. It was the only such fishing streets laid out in perfect grid patterns on a baking lava field and a sales
<br /> village left in the Hawaiian Islands. strategy that yielded the developer a gross profit in the millions of dollars.
<br /> From the 1926 destruction of Hoopuloa until 1982 there were ongoing
<br /> efforts to give the residents of Milolii some kind of secure land tenure, in * * *
<br /> recognition of the uniqueness of their community.Finally in 1982 the Legis-
<br /> lature passed a law which the governor signed,creating a subdivision with In the rush to subdivide places like Milolii,it was not only the interests of
<br /> long-term leases available for the residents. native Hawaiians that were ignored but also the spirit of the State Land Use
<br /> Norman Inaba in 1960 bought from Onomea Ranch Ltd. 423 acres be- Law of 1961.
<br /> tween Milolii Village and the 1926 lava flow. Remote from existing popula- •
<br /> The law specifically attacked the Milolii kind of subdivision.Yet the attor-
<br /> tion and employment centers, very hot, with little rainfall, almost totally ney who prepared the subdivision's partnership registration papers,in pay-
<br /> covered in lava,with virtually no soil, and down about 1,200 feet in eleva- ment for which he received a hui share,was George Ariyoshi,a state senator
<br /> tion from the government access road,the land was nearly worthless as far who had voted in favor of the law.One of the hues limited partners,Ralph K.
<br /> as Onomea was concerned. Inaba thus had to pay only about$137,000. He Ajifu, had before investing served for a year as the first chairman of the
<br /> then cut it up into about 1,000 lots,provided virtually no site improvements, Land Use Commission. In an interview for this book Ajifu said he believed
<br /> and sold at prices which research for this book suggests brought a gross then and now that Milolii was a proper place for a residential subdivision
<br /> return of some$3.5 million. and its existence was not contrary to the Land Use Law, because the land
<br /> When Inaba started out he announced that Milolii was to be an"exclu- had no agricultural value nor any viable economic use other than to be
<br /> sive subdivision for retired military officers."36 In the first four months on subdivided.
<br /> the market some 30% of the lots were sold, most of them presumably to
<br /> active duty officers,since a community association formed shortly thereaf- * * *
<br /> ter was headed entirely by active duty officers. (The association secretary-
<br /> treasurer was Gen.Robert Lee Scott,author of God Is My Co-Pilot.)37 Norman Inaba, who brought Milolii Beach Lots Subdivision and Royal
<br /> In his early public statements Inaba also said there would eventually be a Gardens into existence, was among the biggest of Hawaii County's devel-
<br /> beach club and a 60-acre park.38 - opers. In 1964 the Honolulu Star-Bulletin described him as"the Big Island's
<br /> As with the Royal Gardens sales brochures, which said the subdivision most diversified if not biggest subdivider with nine developments around
<br /> was"only walking distance away from[a]lovely beach,"there was a problem the island covering some 7,000 acres."40
<br /> with the beach at Milolii. Despite the subdivision's name there was no real Just as on other islands where strong family/business/political intercon-
<br /> beach,only a gralelly shoreline area directly in front of the Hawaiian fishing nections grew up in the Democratic years, so on the Big Island Norman In-
<br /> village,which also had the only good boat launching place in the area. aba and his immediate family interlocked with the Democratic leadership,
<br /> Inaba's 1,000-lot subdivision had in the mid-1980s only a 2% buildout and with investors from outside the mainstream Democratic ranks as well.
<br /> rate-15-20 houses,several of which looked like weekend homes.39 The mil- Inaba, for example,was a limited partner in the Kona Highlands Devel-
<br /> itary retirement community never materialized. Nor did the beach club. opment Co.,registered with the state in 1968 to undertake a 250-lot project
<br /> Nor did the park.In an exceedingly hot and dry area,with non-county Stan- in Kalaoa,Kona. Unlike most Puna-Ka'u-South Kona subdivisions,this one
<br /> dard roads, no phone service nor electricity, and with the need during •
<br /> had county standard roads and conventional utilities.Partners with govern-
<br /> much of the year of having to haul potable water, not to mention oneself, ment positions held at various times during the life of the venture were:
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