Was it an unsanctioned drag race or a fun-filled community event? That is the question for State officials after hundreds gathered on Saturday, Oct. 12 for an event in Wahiawa.
WAHIAWA, Hawaii (KHON2) — Was it an unsanctioned drag race or a fun-filled community event?
That is the question for State officials after hundreds gathered on Saturday, Oct. 12 for an event in Wahiawa.
The lessee of the State-owned land where the event was held said he is preparing it to plant native trees.
“Maybe it’s an unconventional, out-of-the-box way of thinking to mix the soil. But we we kind of went through and made sure that it was a safe event,” Scott Wong said. “But we also, usually our tractors and our bulldozers and backhoes will usually turn it up for us.”
The State Department of Business and Tourism Development said permits were not obtained to host the event. Honolulu police said it ended with special duty officers having to disperse a crowd in the parking lot by using pepper balls after a fight broke out between six to 10 people.
“Thankfully, nobody was seriously or critically hurt, looked like, thankfully they did have police on site and they were able to disperse. I mean, that is still pretty extreme to start using pepper balls to get to that level,” DBEDT deputy director Dane Wicker said.
Sen. Brenton Awa represents the area and said officials knew of the event as it was being planned.
“‘They’re like, ‘Whoa, shoot this thing is gonna happen, Okay, we can’t shut it down. How are we going to, you know, work to make this legal as possible,” Awa said. “But, it was way too big of an event, there would have been way too much pushback to shut down something like this.”
The Attorney General even got involved to review the terms of the lease to determine what is allowed, so KHON2 asked the state if what happened was legal.
“From the guidance we got from the AG, Legal? No. Because it’s a violation of the lease,” Wicker said. “The cease and desist was emailed and that the event would be canceled and that was communicated to me that the actual lessee said the event was canceled.”
The State said the land is zoned for agriculture — and specifically, food production — but Wong said his agreement includes brush management. Wong cleared the land where the event was held and plans to plant native trees in the future.
“You know, and it was just a one-off event that we don’t plan on doing again because there may be trees here in this area,” Wong said, “unfortunately, more people came that wasn’t invited and we had to turn a lot of people away just to keep it safe.”
DBEDT said a meeting will be held before the end of October to determine if there will be any ramifications for Wong.