For more than 20 years the lands mauka of Lāʻie have been the site of a quiet, patient effort to keep working agricultural land in production, reforest and restore the landscape, and create a place where the community and its visitors can experience the ʻāina with care. The first reforestation and forestry test plots were planted here in 2003 – long before any visitor activity was imagined.
Over the last two decades, that effort has grown into a long-term plan to cultivate Hawaiian crops, reforest and restore the landscape — including native Hawaiian species — and steward the land for the generations to come. The plan has been deliberate and heavily reviewed by interested community partners and members.
The project earned its Conditional Use Permit from the City and County of Honolulu in 2020 after extensive agency and community input. It also includes commitments to keep at least half of the site in active agricultural use, protect native birds and the endangered Hawaiian hoary bat, safeguard the streams that cross the property, and control invasive species. These goals were never afterthoughts but instead are conditions the plan was built around.
Over the past several years, we have spent significant time working with community members, neighborhood representatives, cultural advisors, and others throughout Lāʻie. As a result of those discussions, we have included as part of the plan commitments related to stewardship, restoration, invasive species management, erosion control, and responsible access to the area – none of which would be possible without generating revenue through agribusiness.
We believe the project strikes the right balance between keeping open spaces undeveloped for agricultural use while using low-footprint methods to generate the necessary revenue to care for the land and provide meaningful employment for community members.
To effectively achieve the plan’s goals, we are working alongside respected local experts in native Hawaiian plants and cultural practices, so that our restoration is informed by the species, knowledge, and traditions that belong to Lāʻie.
The Polynesian Cultural Center (“PCC”) fully supports this vision and the plan. Our two operations share infrastructure and access in Lāʻie, and the plan facilitates leasing of a portion of the land to the PCC in support of their ongoing work as well as local farmers, each a reflection of how neighboring members of this community are working together to achieve the plan’s goals.
Today marks a visible step: we are opening a retail space at Hukilau Marketplace, where the public can connect with the story of this land and the agricultural work taking shape on it. It is a small footprint that will help sustainably achieve the broader goals of the plan.
As we move forward, the project will continue to develop its permitted agricultural and agritourism activities in phases, always anchored to the principle that has guided it from the start: agriculture and restoration first, with responsible public access in support of that mission. We recognize the kuleana that comes with caring for this ʻāina.
We are grateful to the Lāʻie community, to the agencies who have worked alongside us, and to the many hands — past and present — that have carried this effort forward.
— CLIMB Works Lāʻie (CW Laie LLC)