(BIVN) – The Hawaiʻi County Council Planning Committee on Tuesday postponed a vote on two bills that would pave the way for a development in Puʻueo, located between Clem Akina Park and Dodo Mortuary.

The Edmund C. Olson Trust plans to develop 51 total lots on the two parcels totaling roughly 40-acres of land. 49 of those lots will be habitable (30 residential and 19 agricultural lots). One of the remaining 2 lots (1.7-acres) will expand Clem Akina Park, and the other (2.11-acres) will be set aside in order to preserve a historic era cemetery.

The Trust needs a State Land Use Boundary Amendment and a Change Of Zone in order to enable the project to go forward. The Windward Planning Commission voted to forward a favorable recommendation for both requests to the Hawaiʻi County Council.

The alleged damaging of historic gravestones on the property a few years ago – a reported act that was once under state land board consideration for an enforcement action – was a point of contention for both the council and members of the public who testified on the matter from Hilo.

In late 2017 / early 2018, the state accused the Trust of altering historic properties without a County-approved grading and grabbing permit. A state archaeologist “observed clear evidence that heavy equipment had been in the cemetery and that several headstones, including a crypt, had been damaged.”

According to planning consultant Sidney Fuke, representing the Olson Trust on the change of zone application, said the desecration of the graves was unintentional, and added that the matter has since been before the State Historic Preservation Division (SHPD).

The council wants to get more information from SHPD before advancing the bills.

UPDATE: “I find it slightly disturbing that we found this site in the process of grading and grubbing,” said councilmember Matt Kaneali’i-Kleinfelder. “They found it, they noticed it, they disturbed it, and then – by accident or not – did it again. And if that was any one of our families, or our people, that someone had dropped a tree on or disturbed with the bulldozer, I’m pretty sure we would be up in arms against what had happened, and maybe not so forgiving.”

Big Island Video News will have more video of the discussion that took place at the meeting in Kealakehe.