Land sublease payments for TMT deferred

TMT International Observatory’s sublease payments are on hold following a court order requiring a contested case for the agreement with the University of Hawaii at Hilo.

TIO spokesman Scott Ishikawa said TIO and UH-Hilo have agreed to “defer” the payments following the ruling in Hilo Circuit Court in December. The state attorney general’s office has said it will appeal the decision.

The sublease for 6 acres on Mauna Kea went into effect in mid-2014, requiring a $300,000 annual payment for the first three years, with periodic increases that would top out at $1.08 million after a decade.

Judge Greg Nakamura ruled Native Hawaiian cultural practitioner E. Kalani Flores should have been granted a contested case hearing for the sublease agreement. The state Board of Land and Natural Resources denied his request since staff believed they aren’t required for administrative actions.

TIO was making payments twice a year. A $150,000 payment was due Jan. 31.

Eighty percent of the funds go to the Office of Mauna Kea Management.

The other 20 percent is supposed to go to the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, but the agency’s share of the state land revenue is currently capped at $15.1 million a year. Ishikawa said $1 million annual payments the organization makes to Hawaii Island educational programs are continuing.

Meanwhile, lawmakers are considering legislation (HB 1411 and SB 1232) to prohibit contested case hearings from applying to leases or subleases. Ishikawa said TIO didn’t request the legislation.

A second contested case hearing for the project’s conservation district land use permit is ongoing. Dates are scheduled for Feb. 13-16, 21-23 and 27-28 at the Grand Naniloa Hotel in Hilo.

The state Supreme Court tossed the previous permit after the Land Board voted for it before the first hearing was held in 2011.

Email Tom Callis at tcallis@hawaiitribune-herald.com.