State: Group in Seaview Estates broke law

A popular community in Kalapana Seaview Estates built illegal structures and cut down protected trees on state land, according to a report filed earlier this month with the Department of Land and Natural Resources.

The June 10 report, filed by DLNR investigator John Holley, claims that the Village Green Society (VGS) and property manager Graham Ellis ignored a prior warning by the DLNR in 2010 and continued to develop the 59.6-acre piece of property, located south of VGS’ Bellyacres community. Bellyacres includes the Seaview Performing Arts Center for Education, also known as SPACE, and hosts a number of outreach efforts, performances and events, including Hawaii’s Volcano Circus, HICCUP Circus and the SPACE Farmer’s Market.

“We found eight illegal structures on the state parcel, numerous dirt roads which wane in and out of the state parcel, illegally cut roads and walking trails, sunning platforms, a horse corral, a chicken coop and a marijuana patch,” Holley wrote. “It also appeared that some of the structures were on the boundary or not set back far enough. The horse corral was once a pristine ohia forest with large ohia trees. These logs, according to interviews, were cut down and utilized throughout the years as posts for most of the structures on the VGS parcel.”

Holley says that Ellis was asked to remove the structures that had encroached on state land following an inspection in 2010, but after the recent inspection it was clear this request “had gone unheeded.” Additionally, Ellis had been renting the structures on the state land, called “jungalows,” for $400 a month “on a consistent basis” since 2006.

“Just the preponderance of conducting a commercial real estate business on state land without permits from the state, then to mandate the VGS to remove them and be deceived is heinous in itself,” Holley wrote in his report. “The underlying factor is the arrogance and deceit that the VGS and Graham Ellis live by. Without swift and serious penalties their conduct will continue.”

Holley recommended that the state clearly define and mark the state land’s boundary, while requiring the removal of the illegal structures and roads.

Additionally, “all possible permits and or leases should be placed on a moratorium status pending the completion of these mandates. Civil penalties should also be enforced due to the lack of compliance from the VGS,” he wrote.

Holley’s report was based on a May 19 site visit, as well as an aerial inspection to photograph structures on the property. In describing the site visit, Holley said that Ellis tried to lead him toward a parcel of the state land where he had applied for a lease from the state to create additional parking.

“In all appearances, I felt this was an attempt to stray us from the boundary inspection,” Holley wrote.

In a Thursday phone interview, Ellis said he had not seen the report and could not address it. He did say, however, that he was unaware of any encroachment on state land, and any structures located there had been built without his knowledge or approval.

Bellyacres, which bills itself as an “artistic ecovillage,” has long battled with the county Planning Department as it undertook efforts to lessen the impacts of its events on Seaview neighbors, he added.

“We’ve been four years in a special permit amendment process, and the county Planning Department has still not given us a date before the Planning Commission,” he said. “We’re run down and exhausted from that process. And financially, we’ve been incurring legal bills because of that.”

Ellis said that activities at Bellyacres and SPACE, including their Saturday farmer’s market, have come under fire from “a minority, and we’re tired. We’re tired of having to respond to complaints from a minority. It’s stressful.”

This Saturday will be the final market planned within the community, Ellis said. The popular event will move the following weekend to Uncle Robert’s Kava Bar in Kalapana.

“We’ve tried to be considerate of our neighbors (in Seaview),” he said. “Weekly, there has been an influx of traffic through the subdivision. We’re aware that there are mixed feelings in the community.”

Area residents Roxanne “RJ” Hampton and Sativa Sultan admitted this week that they were among the people who filed a complaint with the DLNR concerning the alleged encroachment on the state land. In an emailed statement, Hampton praised Holley’s report.

“I applaud DLNR for doing the work to uncover the wrongdoings that are taking place in Bellyacres,” she wrote. “It is not the unpermitted structures that I object to, it is the fact that Graham Ellis is charging people rent to stay in the jungalows that are clearly on state land. I also have a problem with the poaching of beautiful old ohia as if it is Home Depot in the woods. This is the people’s forest, and if we are truly about sustainability then it is our duty to preserve our forests for the future generation, not for the selfish needs of one man.”

DLNR spokeswoman Deborah L. Ward declined earlier this month to comment on the investigation, citing its ongoing nature. She has not yet responded to a follow-up email on June 18 asking for information after Holley’s report had been filed. Calls made to her office Thursday afternoon were not answered.

Email Colin M. Stewart at cstewart@hawaiitribune-herald.com.