A foreclosure has stalled the development of Punaluʻu Village in one of the most biologically rich and and culturally revered places in Kaʻū.
Visitors see sea turtles and walk around Punaluu Beach in Ka’u on in April 2023. (File photo: Kelsey Walling)
The future of Punaluʻu is now uncertain after a Hawaiʻi circuit court approved an order of foreclosure against developer Black Sand Beach, LLC, after the company defaulted on a $3.4 million mortgage.
The 147-acre property is now headed for public auction, pausing plans for a sprawling luxury development that faced sustained public opposition.
The developer’s proposed “Punaluʻu Village” project included 225 residential and vacation rental units, a commercial center and golf course renovations — all located just inland of Punaluʻu Bay, where endangered hawksbill and green sea turtles feed and nest.
The area is home to anchialine ponds, limu beds, freshwater springs and numerous Native Hawaiian cultural sites, including iwi kūpuna (ancestral remains) and heiau (sacred temple), making it both an ecological treasure and a sacred landscape. The land is in the coastal zone management area where development is legally regulated to protect the coastal environment, public access and community interests.
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“This foreclosure is a much-needed reprieve for Punaluʻu and the people of Kaʻū. his place is sacred. It holds deep cultural meaning, irreplaceable ecosystems and fragile species found nowhere else on Earth,” said Maxx Phillips, Hawai‘i and Pacific Islands director and staff attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “It was never appropriate for large-scale development. The people of Kaʻū have spoken loudly and clearly — they want this place protected, not paved. We’re proud to stand with the community to help make that vision a reality.”
Signs protest the proposed development plan for Punalu’u Black Sand Beach during a Windward Planning Commission Meeting in Hilo in March 2024. (File photo: Kelsey Walling)
The Windward Planning Commission first heard the developer’s special management area permit application in March 2024, triggering strong community testimony in opposition. In May 2024, after additional rounds of public outcry, the commission granted standing to the Center for Biological Diversity, represented by its in-house counsel and Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation, and ʻIewe Hānau O Ka ʻĀina to intervene in a contested case hearing.
The legal standard for approving a Special Management Area Use Permit for a major development of the proposed scale is whether the proposed development is “consistent with the objectives, policies, and guidelines” of the federal Coastal Zone Management Act. Any permit for development in Hawai’i also requires the state to analyze the impact on Native Hawaiian traditional and customary practices, which are protected under the Hawaiʻi Constitution.
Community and cultural practice intervenors raised serious concerns about the developer’s failure to adequately study the project’s cultural and environmental impacts, plan for the protection of sensitive resources or address the deteriorating wastewater system’s threat to coastal water quality.
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However, the county never moved forward with the hearing. In the meantime, the developer defaulted on its mortgage, effectively ending the permitting process for Black Sand Beach, LLC.
Keiki hold up signs as part of the protest against the proposed development plan for Punalu’u Black Sand Beach during a meeting in Hilo in March 2024. (File photo: Kelsey Walling)
ʻĀina (the land) and kūpuna (ancestors) sustain the people of Hawaiʻi and it is the kuleana (responsibility) of all the people living here to maintain a reciprocal relationship with the environment for survival, said Nohea Kaʻawa of ʻIewe Hānau O Ka ʻĀina, an organization dedication to the conservation and preservation of Kaʻū.
“What we want here in Ka‘ū is to continue to have access to the places that grow who we are physically and spiritually,” Kaʻawa said. “We come hard in the fight to protect Ka‘ū and we will continue to do so so that our keiki and generations to come can live simple and free of threats to our way of life.”
While the foreclosure halts the current project, communities living across Kaʻū and their partners will continue to remain vigilant in safeguarding Punaluʻu, according to Ashley Obrey, staff attorney at the Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation.
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“This is a victory rooted in the voices of community members and cultural practitioners who showed up, time and again, to speak for the land and waters of Punaluʻu,” Obrey said. “This land deserves a future shaped by community vision, grounded in mālama ʻāina, and conforming to the environmental and cultural practice protections Hawai‘i law requires.”
The Center for Biological Diversity and Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation continue to work in partnership to ensure any future activity at Punaluʻu respects the rights of lāhui, honors cultural connections and protects fragile ecosystems and the species that depend on them for generations to come.
