Lawmaker proposes state purchase of Hilo land for wilderness park

Rep. Matthias Kusch D, Hilo-Hamakua

A state lawmaker is proposing the purchase of 283 acres in Hilo for what he calls a passive recreation wilderness park.

The agricultural zoned land on Akolea Road in the Kaumana area of Hilo is owned by Bikini Atoll Morimba LLC, which has a Salisbury, Md., address, according to the state Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs.

Bikini Atoll Morimba is composed of Bikini islanders and their descendants displaced by the U.S. exploding an atomic bomb on their island in 1946. The group had hoped to subdivide the land — which it bought in 2019 for $4.8 million — for development, but encountered opposition from residents of nearby subdivisions.

Rep. Matthias Kusch (D, Hilo-Hamakua) will discuss the idea at a community meeting this evening at the Hilo High School cafeteria.

“There’s a lot of community angst about development,” Kusch said.

He envisions a state park with walking trails through natural landscapes, bicycling paths, dog walking, pavilions, a safe walking route to school for E.B. deSilva Elementary students, preservation of cultural sites and what he called “clean, quiet open space.”

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“It’s at the headwaters of the Ainako Stream, a lot of springs and stuff,” Kusch said. “It’s got some neat topography. I think it would be a fantastic park. And if you look at Hilo, there really is no such thing. If you want to go walk in a natural park, you’ve got to go to Kalopa — an hour drive, hour plus. You’ve got to go to Volcano — 45 (minutes) to an hour. Or you’ve got to go up on the Saddle, where there are some limited access points, and only one loop that I’m aware of — the Kaumana Trail, where you can park up above it and then you walk down from the highway.

“But there’s really nothing in town outside of what’s available on our bayfront.”

Kusch said the issue of walking safely to school was raised in a community meeting, which caused him to look “at all these landlocked, one-way-in, one-way-out subdivisions.”

“Terrace Circle is the most prominent, maybe 200 homes, one way in, one way out on Kaumana Drive,” he noted. Kusch added that a walking path along the southern border of the property could connect to nearby residential streets, such as Haleloke and Hokulani streets and Iiwipolena Road.

“Kids nowadays sit in the back of the car with an iPhone or a iPad, because parents don’t think walking to school is safe. And on Kaumana Drive above Ainako Avenue they’re 100% correct — it’s a dangerous road,” he said. “And so, being able to provide a safe access corridor for kids, it’s a huge amount of growth for kids to have that autonomy … to walk to school. I’m not talking about the days when it’s pouring rain, but there are a lot of days when it’s not.

“I have three daughters; they all walk to school: E.B. deSilva, Hilo Intermediate and Hilo High. I would argue that the majority of days, you can walk to school. And navigation is an important skill kids lack nowadays. They get their driver’s license, they don’t know how to get downtown. They don’t know how to navigate because they’ve been in the back seat being chauffeured around and they’re looking at an iPad or a screen.”

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