One of several Oahu landowners facing hefty fines and, potentially, criminal charges for a spate of recent environmental violations on the North Shore looks to donate her multimillion-dollar property there to conservation efforts in exchange for immunity in those matters.

The state’s Board of Land and Natural Resources will weigh whether to approve that settlement deal with popular Chinese-American television personality Yue-Sai Kan when it meets on Friday. 

The agreement would transfer Kan’s 4.7-acre parcel at Marconi Point to the North Shore Community Land Trust, a nonprofit that works to restore and conserve natural habitat in the area. Kan’s attorney, Eric Robinson, put the value of the parcel at $5 million. 

Adam Borrello, the land trust’s executive director, called the potential deal a “game-changing” opportunity to pursue more conservation at Kalaeokaunaoa, or Kahuku Point, on the North Shore’s eastern end.

“It’s unfortunate what’s transpired,” Borrello said of recent incidents at Marconi. “That said, the North Shore Community Land Trust is always happy to be part of any positive solution.”

The proposed settlement with Kan stems from the decimation in October of a 2-acre stretch of naupaka brush and heliotrope trees along the coast at Marconi that served as some of the last significant habitat on Oahu for the endangered Hawaiian yellow-faced bee. 

The violations also included the installation of an illegal iron fence on Kan’s property that contributed to the death of a nesting Laysan albatross in December. State investigators determined that a grounds worker hired by Kan killed the bird, known as Ho’okipa, when he threw a rock at the bird’s head. 

The other property owners at Marconi, including tech mogul Sushil Garg, would not be covered by the Kan settlement. Benjamin Lassary, a groundskeeper hired by Garg and implicated in the bee habitat destruction, would not be covered by it either. 

The state’s Department of Land and Natural Resources would still pursue approximately $3 million in fines and, potentially, criminal actions against those parties even if the Kan deal is approved Friday.

Garg declined to comment Wednesday through his attorney, Kalani Morse. 

When Garg met with state officials after the plants had already been destroyed, he “expressed a concern about the dry brush and fire” and said that he “did not know about the importance of the vegetation,” according to a DLNR report.

However, one of Garg’s former landscaping and nursery workers at the site, Henry Fong, said Monday that he had previously advised Garg and his wife, Lorene King Garg, that they could not cut down the coastal plants because they lay in a state conservation area.

Fong said that the Gargs told him they intended to cut down the plants anyway because they were blocking the view of the ocean, according to Fong. 

“Sushil was the one who authorized the labor to do it,” Fong said. 

Fong, a Hawaiian lineal descendant of the land at Marconi, also submitted that account in testimony to the BLNR.

Robinson, meanwhile, said the proposed settlement showed Kan’s “commitment to philanthropy and conservation” because the property is worth substantially more than whatever portion of the $3 million fine she would have to pay.

“This is a way for her to give back and to make sure that the conservation is going on,” he said.