The Hawaii Board of Land and Natural Resources will issue a revokable permit to Na Aikane o Maui, a nonprofit based in Lahaina that ran a popular cultural center that burned down in the Aug. 8 wildfires.

The board voted unanimously at its meeting last week to grant an after-the-fact permit which will allow the nonprofit’s leaders, Ke‘eaumoku and Uilani Kapu, to apply for recovery funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency so the organization can recoup some of its personal property losses from the fire.

The permit covers the period of time from Jan. 1, 2010 to Aug. 8, 2023.

Ke‘eaumoku Kapu said Wednesday that he would like the land board to issue a long-term lease, not a revokable permit.

“A revokable permit is a short window. Sometimes it’s a year to year. Sometimes it’s month to month,” said Kapu. “We are right across from Moku‘ula and we want to start with the long-term recovery of the historic corridor, the cultural corridor. A lot of people talk about it but not everybody understands the dynamics behind it, the politics behind it.”

He was referring to the former seat of the Hawaiian Kingdom which lies buried underneath a baseball field in Lahaina. The area was filled in during the early part of the 20th century, according to historical accounts.

Kapu, a prominent West Maui cultural leader, has been leading efforts along with famed waterman Archie Kalepa to have Moku‘ula and its surrounding former wetland Mokuhinia restored, along with the creation of a cultural corridor to celebrate Lahaina’s storied past as the home of Hawaiian nobility.

Kapu said he was not aware the revokable permit issue was on the land board’s agenda until a friend told him about it. He and his wife flew to Honolulu immediately when they found out so they could testify before the board. Now they’re filling out an application for a long-term lease and hoping it can get scheduled for a vote at an upcoming meeting, he said.

In its staff report to the land board recommending that the revokable permit be granted, the Department of Land and Natural Resources says that once the Na Aikane o Maui site is cleaned up and the organization has submitted a reconstruction proposal, DLNR staff will return to the board and ask to approve a new land disposition.

The revocable permit covers use of the land and the state-owned improvements that existed prior to the fire. Because the improvements were owned by the state, Na Aikane o Maui will not be able to collect federal funds for their destruction, according to DLNR.

Any request for public assistance to FEMA would be limited to personal property losses since Na Aikane o Maui did not own the improvements on the parcel.

“Any discussion about funding for future buildings on the property is premature because Na Aikane o Maui does not have a lease from the State for future use of the land. The Board would need to approve any request for such a lease at a public meeting,” a DLNR spokesman said.

Civil Beat’s coverage of Maui County is supported in part by a grant from the Nuestro Futuro Foundation.

Civil Beat’s coverage of environmental issues on Maui is supported by grants from the Center for Disaster Philanthropy and the Hawaii Wildfires Recovery Fund, the Knight Foundation and the Doris Duke Foundation.