Lahaina Community Land Trust celebrates blessing of its first parcel secured in community ownership

Standing on ʻāina that will forever be protected for Lahaina’s kamaʻāina families, the Lahaina Community Land Trust gathered Monday with community leaders, friends and ‘ohana to celebrate and bless the first property secured into community ownership.

“What started as a reaction to the devastation has materialized into 1651 Lokia Street, the first ʻāina that we can protect for this beautiful community,” said Mikey Burke, president of LCLT’s Board of Directors. “This is site No. 1… but we have a whole community that we have to make sure does not get replaced, and it’s going to take all of us.” 

The Lahaina Community Land Trust is a 501(c)3 nonprofit that was born in the fires’ aftermath to ensure that Lahaina’s lands remain forever in the hands of its people.

LCLT embodies the internationally-recognized Community Land Trust model, which was born in the US South in the 1960s as a way to protect Black families who were being driven from their lands for participating in the Civil Rights Movement.

LCLT leaders say this tool of land protection is community-driven at its core and has historically been wielded by communities of color and Indigenous peoples to support self-determination and steward land for future generations.

“So much of who we are has been put into this – years of experience working in our community, protecting our community, protecting our water, protecting our oceans, protecting our ʻāina, protecting our culture,” Kapali Keahi, LCLT board member, told the crowd during Monday’s blessing, gathered on the property that will one day  be home to a main house and two ‘ohana units – constructed with a multigenerational Lahaina family in mind. 

LCLT signed the paperwork to secure the parcel of community-owned land on Aug. 8, 2024, exactly one year after thousands of Lahaina families lost their homes in the fire. The former owners of 1651 Lokia Street, who are in their 80s, immediately left Maui and chose to move closer to their grown children, all of whom are on the continent. 

LCLT has partnered with the team of experts – a collaborative effort with Regen Maui, Rothschild Doyno Collaborative, MASON, Ridge to Reefs, International Living Future Institute and the County of Maui – to design a groundbreaking home for the site that will embrace regenerative building, recycling water and harnessing renewable energy in a way that is healthy for both people and the planet.

Once construction is complete, a homeowner will be chosen through a lottery system currently being developed by LCLT and its advisory board of Maui Komohana community leaders, which focuses on anti-displacement policies that protect longtime Lahaina residents.

“This narrative we’ve all been fed – that there’s nothing we can do about the ever-increasing property values and displacement of local families – that stops here with us,” said LCLT Executive Director Autumn Ness. 

“It’s not this runaway train that we can’t do anything about, that we just watch happen,” she continued. “We can, we are writing a different narrative that keeps Lahaina home, and that starts here, on this ʻāina.”