Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 13, Number 6, 1 June 1996 — Kalapana community project [ARTICLE]

Kalapana community project

The Kalapana Sustainable Community Project, a current priority of OHA's Housing division, has officially begun the planning process. A eommunity planner has been selected to work with Kalapana's 50

displaced native Hawaiian families. A volcanic eruption in 1983 destroyed one of the last remaining Hawaiian settlements on the Big Island. The Legislature allocated 150 acres of homestead lands in Kikala-Kēōkea, to help stabilize the families who had lost their homes in Kalapana. The 150 acres have been divided up into 67, one-acre lots for residen-

tial use with four acres set aside for a community center. The master plan's primary focus will be development of the community and a cultural center. The land is currently planned for community based eeonomie activities, whieh will allow the community to be self-sufficient. As a whole, the community would be able to follow traditional roles of agriculture, fishing and

other skills. Self-governance and responsibility would lie within the community.