(BIVN) – The first of three public open house meetings was held in Waimea Monday night, on the University of Hawaiʻi’s Environmental Impact Statement Preparation Notice to replace the two existing leases and easement for UH managed lands on Maunakea.

The EISPN was published in the February 23 issue of the Environmental Notice of the State Office of Environmental and Quality Control. “The UH lease for the 11,288-acre Mauna Kea Science Reserve expires in 2033,” the university wrote in a media release, “and a non-exclusive easement for the Mauna Kea Access Road, for about 71 acres, also expires in 2033. The lease for the 19-acre Halepōhaku mid-level facility expires in 2041.”

The university is considering three alternatives:

1) the leases and easement are allowed to expire, 2) UH receives a new authorization for a much reduced land area, or 3) UH receives a new authorization for the same areas. The three options and potentially additional alternatives based on input received during the EISPN review period will be evaluated in the Draft EIS. Once completed, the Draft EIS will go also go through a thorough public review process.

“We set up posters and we have project representatives, action representatives, here to inform the public and collect comments on the prep notice so we can prepare a draft EIS in the coming months,” said Planning Solutions, Inc. president Jim Hayes in Waimea.

The next open house is tonight in Hilo from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. at ʻImiloa Astronomy Center of Hawaiʻi.

On Wednesday, March 14 the series ends in Honolulu (5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the UH Cancer Center, Sullivan Conference Center, 701 Ilalo Street.)