[Page 25]
Supreme Court
Environmental
Flores v. Board of Land and Natural Resources, No. SGAP-17-0000059, August 8, 2018, (Nakayama, J.). In May 2014, Appellee-Appellee/Gross-Appellant University of Hawaii (the University) requested that Appellee-Appellant/Cross-Appellee Board of Land and Natural Resources (BLNR) consent to a sublease that the University intended to enter into with TMT International Observatory LLC (TIO) for the construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) on the Mauna Kea Science Reserve (Sublease). BLNR subsequently addressed the University's request for its consent to the Sublease at two separate public meetings. At both meetings, Appellant-Appellee E. Kalani Flores (Flores) orally requested that BLNR hold a contested case hearing prior to making a decision on the matter. Following the second meeting, Flores filed a written petition for a contested case hearing. BLNR denied Flores's request and consented to the Sublease. Flores appealed BLNR's denial of his request for a contested case hearing to the Environmental Court of the Third Circuit (environmental court). The environmental court ruled that based upon this court's opinion in Mauna Kea Anaina Hou v. Board of Land and Natural Resources, 136 Hawaii 376, 363 P.3d 224 (2015), BLNR infringed upon Flores's constitutional rights by rejecting his request for a contested case hearing. On secondary appeal...
