The Village Green Society and Hawaii’s Volcano Circus will be fined $53,743 for building illegal structures on state land and removing protected trees.
The state Board of Land and Natural Resources approved the fines Friday after an investigation found several structures on state land adjacent to VGS’ Bellyacres community in Kalapana Seaview Estates.
The circus operates its Seaview Performing Arts Center for Education on VGS’ property.
The organizations will be required to remove the structures — including eight cabins and a horse corral — within 90 days.
Both are named in the state Department of Land and Natural Resources’ enforcement action, which refers to VGS as a nonprofit organization “whose purpose is to hold title to land, collect income therefrom and turn over funds to the HVC.”
Graham Ellis, HVC chairman, maintained Monday that the performing arts group, which has sought to lease the state parcel, was not involved in building the illegal structures. He said he could not comment on behalf of VGS, though he acknowledged he is also the corporation secretary for that group.
As far as the circus goes, Ellis said it doesn’t have the funds to pay the fine.
“The (circus) is broke right now,” he said. “It’s not giong to be paying any fines if that’s the reality.”
This isn’t the first time DLNR has told HVC/VGS to remove illegal structures on the state parcel.
When HVC applied to lease the land in 2010, the department found several bungalow-style buildings on the property.
According to DLNR, Ellis told the department in January 2011 the structures had been removed.
“During the subsequent inspection … Mr. Ellis pointed out several locations where structures had been removed and assured staff that all structures on state land were gone,” DLNR staff wrote in a memo to the board. It’s unclear if any fines were issued then.
Another inspection in May found the additional housing structures on state land and that a large area of ohia forest was cleared to build a corral.
Three Kalapana Seaview Estates residents made a complaint to DLNR that prompted the most recent inspection.
Two of those residents, RJ Hampton and Sativa Sultan, applauded the enforcement action in an email to the Tribune-Herald.
“We are very pleased at the outcome of this investigation,” they said. “… DLNR exemplified what an agency can do when the investigation is done right and taken seriously.”
HVC first sought to lease the 59-acre state parcel in 1997 for educational and recreational uses, according to DLNR.
But, for reasons department staff say are not clear, a lease request was never taken to the board.
It doesn’t appear that the most recent lease request has been acted upon.