KALAPANA SEAVIEW ESTATES COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION
12-7017 Kalihikai St # 4537 ● Pahoa, Hawai’i 96778
www.kseca.org ● 808-339-1254

Mitch Roth
Ashley Kierkewicz
Gregor Illegan,
Joy San Buenoventura
Office of the Prosecuting Attorney
Hawai’i Police Department
Officer Scanlan
Officer Cardines
Hawai’i Department of Health
Department of Land and Natural Resources
cc Judith Houle, Puna Neighborhood Watch President
cc Kevin Kushel, Kalapana Seaview Estates Neighborhood Watch President

Re: Request for help with our “Front Park”

Aloha,

We are reaching out to you and specific agencies in hopes of receiving help dealing with a situation in our community. Even if you are unable to help we want you to be aware of the challenging situation we face.

The parcel owners of Kalapana Seaview own 3 parks, one being along the coast off of HWY 137 (Red Road) on Kalihikai St. It is one of the very few places one can pull off into a nice park environment and view the ocean. Historically the park has been used by different people from lower Puna as well as tourists out sightseeing. The property owners as a whole have not had issue with the park being used this way because there were relatively few issues that developed. Approximately 10-15 years ago a small group of performers and drummers started gathering on Sunday in our park. In the beginning it too was fairly benign.

As the district of Puna has grown in population combined with very few coast recreation areas (exacerbated by the 2018 lave flow) our park has been a focal point for the general public to gather. The group of drummers has grown in size as well as their followers. Of course, where people gather there will eventually be vendors.

As of the summer of 2022 there were a large group of drummers and approximately 30 vendors with a total of over 1,000 people in our park every Sunday. We reached out to our community police officers (Scanlan and Cardines) and discussed options on dealing with this event on our property that was not sanctioned by the Board of the Seaview Community Association. The community is divided, a greater portion of the residing owners seems to be opposed to the Sunday event due to liability concerns and overuse of the park while a smaller portion is in support of the event.

We were told that without a fence around the park, the police couldn’t issue criminal trespassing citations. With their help we had representatives from the Police, DOH and DLNR present in the park on Sunday on August 28, 2022 and from that point on there were no
vendors. That was a major accomplishment and we want to thank all folks involved with the coordination and for their participation.
With the vendors gone and only the drumming the number of people gathered dropped to about half of what it had been. Even still our small park is not designed to accommodate hundreds of people, there are neither adequate parking nor facilities.

Over time the vendors started to return. The Board has posted new signs in the palm trees and has reached out to the public and the drummers with a plea to move the gathering elsewhere but was ignored.

In recent months the Board has come to realize that we need to have a security detail present to curb this activity because there have been incidents of alcohol abuse and violence. In reaching out to the established security companies as well as the Special Duty Police officer program, we found that no one is willing to be hired for security.

Our backs are against the wall and we are now looking at the reality that the landowners themselves are going to have to start making a presence in the park on Sundays to detour people from this activity. Of course this would open up to the possibility of conflict between different factions. We are going to keep you informed of our plans and work with whoever will support us in this effort so that it can be executed with minimal conflict.

We feel we have to reach out to you for help in this matter and would welcome any suggestion you may have for helping us address this unsustainable and illegal event that is taking place in our park.

Mahalo for your time and consideration.

Respectfully,

Kalapana Seaview Estates Board of Directors