While the state grapples with a pair of troublesome Banyan Drive properties, Hawaii County and state officials have big plans for the future of the Waiakea Peninsula.
The approximately 101 acres of the peninsula and surrounding area are owned by the state and managed by the Department of Land and Natural Resources, which leases out individual parcels to various lessees. But with many parcels having visibly fallen into disrepair, stakeholders are eyeing the possibility of new management for the area.
During Wednesday’s meeting of the Banyan Drive Hawaii Management Agency, Mayor Kimo Alameda and three Big Island lawmakers discussed their visions for the peninsula.
Alameda said he campaigned on a promise to reinvigorate the area, saying he wished the BDHMA could see the ideal Banyan Drive he envisions in his mind.
The mayor said he is willing to put county funds toward landscaping along the drive — in particular, for removing a banyan tree across from Reeds Bay Beach Park that was damaged in 2023 by a fire.
“I want to get lights on the trees by next year,” Alameda said, adding he hopes to work with the Friends of the Lili‘uokalani Gardens to get both Banyan Drive and the park shining with lights at night for a more welcoming environment for visitors and residents.
Meanwhile, the unsightly derelicts on Banyan Drive — the former Country Club Condominium Hotel and the former site of the recently demolished Uncle Billy’s Hilo Bay Hotel — should be left as public open space, Alameda said, who added that any future hotel development should be constructed on the 62-acre Naniloa Golf Course within the peninsula.
“I don’t know if we can have a shovel ready in the next four years, but I hope we can have things untied in the next eight,” Alameda said.
Three state representatives from Hilo — Sue Keohokapu-Lee Loy, Chris Todd and Matthias Kusch — attended Wednesday’s meeting via Zoom to discuss a pair of bills that propose transferring management of the state-owned Waiakea lands to the Hawaii Community Development Authority, a body within the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism.
Keohokapu-Lee Loy and Kusch are both co-introducers of House Bill 818, which would establish the “Waiakea Peninsula Community Development District,” set up a special fund for that district, and create up a nine-member board to manage the area.
In order to do this, the bill stipulates the Waiakea lands would be transferred away from the DLNR to the HCDA by the end of 2025, although former Hilo Rep. Richard Onishi recommended Wednesday that date be pushed back at least to the end of 2026. Keohokapu-Lee Loy said she would take that recommendation under advisement.
Keohokapu-Lee Loy said that after years of witnessing Banyan Drive’s slow decay, people are “done having conversations, and now it’s time for action.”
While Todd is not a co-signer of HB 818, he said he will do everything in his power as House majority caucus leader to ensure the bill’s smooth passage through the chamber. He added that if the bill passes, the BDHMA could possibly adopt a more proactive approach toward management of the area, and pointed out that even tasks as simple as tree maintenance are caught up in a bureaucratic morass where it’s unclear which agency is actually responsible for them.
A House Committee on Water and Land discussed HB 818 on Thursday and recommended it be passed with amendments, with no votes in opposition. A corresponding measure in the Senate, SB 1078 — introduced by Hilo Sen. Lorraine Inouye — has not yet been scheduled for any committee hearings.
Attendees Wednesday mostly talked around the elephant in the room: the former Country Club, whose current manager, Banyan Drive Management LLC, announced last month that it will surrender its revocable permit for the property. When BDM vacates the property today, the DLNR once again be left to deal with a nearly uninhabitable building that will cost millions to demolish.
Candace Martin, DLNR’s acting district land manager for the Big Island, said Wednesday that DLNR officers would erect a fence around the property this month and set up security for the site. The future of the property, however, is still up in the air.
Email Michael Brestovansky at mbrestovansky@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
