Lawsuit trying to stop Kamehameha School’s Keauhou Bay plan to have hearing about consultant’s role

Along West Hawai‘i’s volcanic coastline, Keauhou Bay has lured visitors, fishermen and canoe paddlers to its calm waters. They come for the easy ocean access and vast marine life, including regular visits from manta rays attracted by the lights from the Outrigger Kanaloa at Kona.

But more than 200 years ago, long before the ocean tours and hotel, the bay area was the birthplace of Kauikeaoli, who would become King Kamehameha III, the longest-reigning Hawaiian monarch, and a strong advocate of literacy for the Hawaiian people. While the site is considered sacred, its history and significance are overlooked amid the commercial activity and hundreds of daily visitors jockeying for the inadequate number of parking spots.

The majority landowner of the bay, Kamehameha Schools, hopes to change that with a proposed Keauhou Bay Management Plan that covers approximately 29 acres. The plan calls for reorienting commercial activities away from culturally sensitive areas to reduce congestion, establishing a new cultural education center, and building what the school describes as new “low-impact lodging on the resort-zoned plateau mauka of the bay,” with 150 bungalows 300 feet from the shoreline on the bluff.

But a long-time Big Island resident and user of the bay, Rebecca Melendez, is challenging the school’s plan. With the help of Artificial Intelligence, Melendez filed a 237-page lawsuit seeking a judicial review from a judge.

It comes after she filed a complaint in October 2025 with the Kona District Court that claims the Hawai‘i County Planning Department’s acceptance of the plan’s 454-page Final Environmental Impact Statement a month earlier was unlawful, and that the document was inadequate and deceptive.

She added G70, the consulting firm that developed the environmental impact statement, to her lawsuit after filing the original complaint. G70 has filed a motion to dismiss the firm’s inclusion in the court case.

The hearing on G70’s motion is scheduled for Monday, June 15, in Kona’s Third Circuit Court. Litigation on the original filing is ongoing.

Melendez said she hopes to ultimately stop plans for the proposed bungalow development.

Kamehameha Schools said the Keauhou Bay Management Plan was “inspired by Kauikeaouli’s example,” and that it “reflects Kamehameha Schools’ commitment to stewarding ʻāina, strengthening Native Hawaiian culture, and creating opportunities that support local families and contribute to the long-term well-being of the community.”

“Remembered as a visionary and progressive aliʻi, his (Kauikeaoli) leadership shaped landmark advances in education, governance, and cultural preservation that continue to influence Hawaiʻi today,” Kamehameha Schools stated in an email to Big Island Now on Friday.

Melendez’s court filing lodges several allegations against Kamehameha Schools, specifically highlighting that the plan allocates water for only 101 bungalow units, yet 150 are proposed to be built.

In the final approved impact statement, the consulting firm notes that the project’s water demand has been accounted for through a water agreement between the Hawaiʻi County Department of Water Supply and Kamehameha Schools, with the educational trust possessing sufficient water credits.

Melendez also pointed out that part of the management plan is to move the canoe storage that is along the shoreline somewhere else, and eliminate the volleyball court that has been there for 50 years.

The school said the canoe storage is not moving from the shoreline. With regard to the volleyball court, the school learned that while the volleyball court has been there for several years, no land agreement exists between the user of the sand court and the school.

There were discussions about a new spot for the court, but volleyball players were told they would have to develop the court themselves and get into a land agreement with the school.

Melendez is not Hawaiian, but she has worked in and around the bay on and off for 30 years as a deckhand and guide for snuba and manta ray snorkels and kayaks.

“I love that bay,” Melendez said, adding she knows what the area means to the community.

In one of her meetings with the school, Melendez said she was told that every person who stays in the proposed bungalow resort will have full access to Hawaiian-endowed lands and will be educated on Hawaiian culture.

“Their duty is to educate the Hawaiian people,” Melendez said.

Melendez has spent hundreds of hours and dollars doing the filing and making corrections to ensure everything is correct so she doesn’t mess up. She is confident that the judge will rule in her favor in the upcoming motion.

Melendez posts about the court case regularly at bigislandsupport.com/savekbay/.

She is not the only one in opposition to at least parts of the plan.

A total of 130 agencies and individuals provided comments during the 30-day public Environmental Impact Statement Preparation Notice comment period. The comments received during this period helped inform the scope of the Draft Environmental Impact Statement. A total of 300 agencies and individuals provided comments during that 45-day public comment period.

The majority of the comments support protecting the cultural sites and moving the commercial operations, however, there is strong opposition to the development of the bungalow resort. Click here to read those comments.

Kamehameha Schools is a nonprofit founded in 1887 by the will of Bernice Pauahi Bishop, the great-granddaughter of King Kamehameha the Great. Its mission is to fulfill Ke Ali‘i Pauahi’s vision of empowering Native Hawaiians in perpetuity by improving their well-being through education.

The county requested Kamehameha Schools create the plan for the vacant land around Keauhou Bay after it needed emergency repair permits following the 2011 tsunami, which damaged buildings as well as exposed a sewer line.

In 2016, the school started its initial community outreach. Since then, they’ve held more than 150 meetings with lineal descendants, Daughters of Hawai‘i, commercial operators, Kamehameha Schools land tenants, recreational users and elected officials.

Kamehameha Schools stated in its email to Big Island Now on Friday that the comprehensive Final Environmental Impact Statement of the plan reflects years of study, analysis and consultation regarding the project’s potential impacts and mitigation measures.

“We will continue to address claims raised in pending litigation through the legal process and remain confident in the thoroughness of our analysis and the integrity of the planning process,” the email states.

Kamehameha Schools now holds the majority land title for the bay due to its land acquisition in the 1960s. The school purchased Kuleana land from Native Hawaiian families in the area. The lands were part of the Kuleana Act, in which small tracts of land were gifted to Native Hawaiians between 1850 and 1855.

Through the outreach process, the school has said they’ve been committed to engaging with those descendants. The school’s goal has been to do better and engage those families on how they can bring them back to Keauhou Bay and other nearby areas in a meaningful way.

The school will be submitting its Special Management Area Permit request later this year. That process could take up to a year. Following the approval of that permit, construction

The proposed bungalow development would not occur for at least another five to 10 years, pending approval of the Special Management Area permit.

Manu Powers, a member of the Daughters of Hawai‘i and the owner and operator of Sea Quest, told Big Island Now on Friday that she felt Kamehameha Schools has done well communicating its plan to the public.

“They’ve been making it possible to engage over the years and they’ve been accessible,” she said.

As a tenant who would be directly impacted by the plan, Powers said she’s in support of moving her operations to protect the historical sites.

According to the Final Environmental Impact Statement, some of the major proposed changes include:

• Establishing a Heritage Engagement area around the Ahu‘ula Cliff area and the Kauikeaouli birth site, which would mean relocating the current Fair Wind and Sea Quest grounds.

• Improving the north side of Old Kona Road, which currently isn’t being used and is overgrown. It may be used for community engagement activities and passive recreational uses.

• Building a new retail area south of the bay near the entrance of the existing hotel to accommodate the relocation of existing commercial operators. It also would add space for ocean recreation businesses that do not have a formal retail, office and check in location at the bay.

• The upper bluff will accommodate low-impact, minimal height profile cabana/bungalow-type lodging with destination amenities and parking.

• A potential boat trailer parking area is being proposed along Kaleiopapa Street on the south end of the upper plateau area.

According to the final statement, Keauhou Bay is identified as a unique shoreline asset and a significant wahi pana (storied place in Hawaiian cultural traditions), presenting opportunities to facilitate local learning and community gathering while generating revenue to help fund the educational trust.

During early discussions with the community between 2016 and 2019, the school identified several critical issues in the area in the final statement:

• The integrity of natural and cultural resources is threatened in the absence of a long-term comprehensive management plan.
• Kamehameha Schools properties at Keauhou Bay are underperforming economically.
• Incompatible uses at the bayfront create conflicts between users and disrespect for wahi pana.
• Kamehameha Schools lands at Keauhou Bay are underutilized for educational programming.
• Existing circulation patterns create congestion and safety concerns.

Powers, who also has two children who attend Kamehameha Schools, said she thinks Melendez’s heart is in the right place, adding that it is hard to draw delineation between changes to the bay, protecting historical sites and repurposing land for commercial use.

“We have to look at them separately, even though they’re lumped into the same permit,” Powers said. “Until we better understand what the cost and build-out are going to be, it’s hard for me to form my opinion on the hotel (bungalows). Right now, it’s still very speculative.”

Powers doesn’t think it matters that Melendez isn’t Hawaiian, adding, “it’s just about loving and protecting that place.”

“However, if there was an organized majority opinion that was being shared consistently, the school would listen,” Powers said.