The state’s land board is set to consider a preliminary approval of the purchase of land for the Kona Judiciary Complex.
The proposal to buy 10 acres of North Kona property from the Queen Liliuokalani Trust for the long-planned complex goes before the board Friday. The exact purchase price was not included in a submission to the board; a Judiciary spokeswoman on Tuesday said officials would provide the cost figure when the agreement with the trust was closer to being finalized.
Department of Land and Natural Resources staff recommended the Board of Land and Natural Resources approve the purchase in principle, with the conditions that final details be submitted to the board for final approval later.
Courts Administrator Rod Maile told West Hawaii Today last month the purchase price would likely be a nominal figure, but the exact amount had not yet been determined. Judiciary officials initially selected a different site for the complex, but the presence of an endangered plant near the construction site prompted them to return to other, previously evaluated sites.
The trust land, which scored the same in the Judiciary’s environmental impact statement evaluation, is located near Makalapua Center, mauka of Queen Kaahumanu Highway. Trust officials are in negotiations with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which wants to designate about 18,000 acres in West Hawaii as critical habitat for a number of endangered species, to create a mitigation plan. That plan would exempt 302 trust-owned acres, including the proposed Judiciary site, from the critical habitat area.
“Although (the trust’s) proposed mitigation plan has purportedly been approved by USFWS Hawaii office, it remains subject to review and approval by USFWS regional and national offices,” the submittal to the land board said.
Regardless, the document said, even if the site remains within the proposed critical habitat area, state officials do not expect building the Judiciary complex to trigger any federal reviews, because no federal funds will be used, no federal lands will be impacted and no federal approvals are required.
The complex is expected to cost about $90 million.
