By JASON ARMSTRONG Tribune-Herald staff writer ADVERTISING After sitting fallow for the last 18 years, 718 acres of Hawaii County’s Paauilo lands are closer than ever to being returned to productive agriculture. That’s because Hawaii County is soliciting sealed bids
By JASON ARMSTRONG
Tribune-Herald staff writer
After sitting fallow for the last 18 years, 718 acres of Hawaii County’s Paauilo lands are closer than ever to being returned to productive agriculture.
That’s because Hawaii County is soliciting sealed bids from farmers, ranchers and others desiring to lease any of its 16 parcels for at least a decade. Notices were mailed Monday to approximately 48 people who submitted proposals before the Nov. 14 deadline, said Ken Van Bergen, the county’s property manager.
“They’re going to be allowed to bid on parcels they proposed on,” Van Bergen said Wednesday.
All have agreed to pay a minimum rent of $11.63 an acre to lease any of the vacant parcels the county accepted in a 1994 property tax settlement with a bankrupt sugar cane plantation.
They range in size from 12.8 acres to 110 acres, meaning the upset prices go from a low of $1,489 up to $12,760 for a decade’s worth of use.
The southernmost and northernmost lands have paved access via Antone De Luz Road and Paauilo Mauka Road, respectively. Old dirt cane-haul roads, some very steep and bumpy, are used to reach the other parcels. Since the county received more than one offer on each parcel, it must solicit sealed bids to select lessees rather than simply entering negotiations with a single party, Van Bergen said.
“I expect most folks who turned in a proposal will submit a sealed bid,” he said.
“We will be opening bids Feb. 16 at 10 a.m.” in the County Council’s Hilo chambers, he said.
To comply with a County Council request, the highest bidder for each parcel will be presented to lawmakers for approval, he said.
If the council approves the lease, then the administration will negotiate deadlines for fencing the land, should it be used for cattle operations, and other details, Van Bergen said.
If the council rejects the highest bidder, then the property will go, pending council approval, to the next-highest bidder, he said.
“I’m very happy that we’re at a point where we’ll be able to get people on the land in the very near future. I’m ecstatic,” said County Council Chairman Dominic Yagong, who has been demanding the county keep the Hamakua lands since that community first elected him in 1996.
The response from interested lessees reinforces “that what we fought for all these years was the right thing to do,” Yagong said.
Although the council rejected his bill to require the administration to furnish lease prices, how the land will be used and other details before executing a lease, Yagong said that information will be provided in response to a resolution he got adopted.
“It comes back in the open forum, and I thought that was very important,” he said of having the council OK each lease.
He hopes leasing the Paauilo lands will be the first step toward opening up other government property for agricultural use.
Terms call for a 10-year lease, with the option for two, 10-year extensions, Van Bergen said.
“Because we haven’t done this before, I have no idea how high it’s going to go. (It’s) kind of unprecedented for the county,” Van Bergen said of leasing hundreds of acres of agricultural land.
Revenues will go into the county’s general fund, he said.
Mayor Billy Kenoi had attempted to sell the Paauilo lands in 2010 to raise $8.2 million he said was needed to balance the county’s 2010-2011 operating budget.
Despite a $10,000 advertising campaign, the sale effort failed to generate even a single offer. That may have been because the lands were worth $1.9 million less than the administration’s estimate, according to a June 2009 independent appraisal the county commissioned.
The Paauilo parcels are among the 4,418 acres the county accepted in a tax settlement with the former Hamakua Sugar Co., which was hit with a retroactive tax bill of more than $18 million when it stopped farming one year shy of its 20-year agreement with the county. The land has not been used since.
Area residents are pleased the land is being returned to agriculture and will remain under county ownership, preventing possible development of million-dollar homes, Yagong said.
“They’re happy that we kept the fight going, and in the end, the people won,” he said.
Email Jason Armstrong at jarmstrong@hawaiitribune-
herald.com.
