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Looking to build a windmill on your land up in the mountains? Hoping to truck in sand to stem the tide of erosion? These and many other land uses once barred by state law could soon become a reality.

Hawaii rules governing what can and cannot be done in the most protected areas of the islands are up for discussion for the first time in more than a decade. A stringent permitting process still awaits those who apply, but new land uses could be added to the list.

Though [pdf] were last amended in 1994 and the state has been looking at potential changes for years, time is of the essence. The state should strike while the iron is hot, Hawaii Department Land of Natural Resources Office of Conservation and Coastal Land Chief Sam Lemmo told some two dozen citizens at a public meeting at the Kalanimoku Building in downtown Honolulu last week. He said right now he has a “captive administration” — the rule changes have the support of his boss, department Chair Laura Thielen, and the Board of Land and Natural Resources.

“We have a chairperson and a board that is willing to do it. It’s tough to get big rule amendments through the administration process, as you might imagine,” Lemmo said when asked why the office is pushing for the changes to go through by December. “My boss and the board that we answer to have been very supportive in moving this effort along.”

When a new governor is sworn in Dec. 1, there could be many new names and faces in important chairs. And they may want to take “another eight-year look at this,” Lemmo said.

But Lemmo said he’s not rushing into anything. The impending transition from one governor’s administration to another’s was the catalyst for the 1994 rules changes, and Lemmo said he had a problem with the way that process played out.

“I think the process that these (proposed) rules went through are a lot more vetted (than the 1994 rules) … so I’m going to push to get it through by December,” he said laughing, perhaps at the perceived double-standard.

The issues Lemmo has with the existing rules might be addressed by the [pdf]. They include seven brand new identified land uses and four other “significantly amended” sections, according to a handout provided at the public meeting. There are numerous other minor additions and deletions.

The conservation district — which contains nearly 2 million acres of environmentally sensitive places like forests, water reserves and open spaces, providing a home to resources and wildlife — is further subdivided into four subzones. Depending on the level of protection in the subzone and the proposed activity, varying degrees of oversight are required. Minor uses in less sensitive areas can proceed with just a letter of concurrence, while more impactful behaviors in protected areas need the approval of the full land board. And if a use is not identified in the conservation district rules, it’s not allowed. Period.

New proposed uses like renewable power generation facilities, wilderness camps and camp sites and shoreline erosion controls would always require the board’s approval — which usually involves an environmental assessment and can take up to six months. Others will not need to go through such a grueling process. Another new use will make it easier for landowners to dedicate their property to forest reserves and plant sanctuaries.

Those in attendance at the meeting included representatives of companies who do work in the conservation district, academics from the University of Hawaii and others who are curious about how the state’s most protected and least developed lands stay that way.

They asked questions about the difference between “management plan” and “comprehensive management plan” (Lemmo’s answer: It’s “something that’s reserved to the discretion of the Board of Land and Natural Resources”), what materials can be used to construct a “shelter” (anything), and why a reference to the section of the Hawaii Administrative Rules governing environmental disclosure was removed (“It seemed unnecessary to me”).

Other proposed changes include altering the definition of use from anything longer than 14 days to anything longer than 30 days, giving temporary uses a wider window. And gone is the requirement that all permittees produce an annual report to prove their compliance with conditions.

“That’s certainly something that’s a judgment call on our part,” Lemmo said. “The thought there is we want to reserve the discretion to determine what the frequency of reporting will be for a particular thing. … We can’t in our office go out and knock on people’s doors. It ain’t gonna happen.”

Instead, the office plans to “frontload” the process to ensure that people are doing the right thing from the beginning, and punish violators harshly when they are caught, he said.

“We think about this stuff all the time. It’s something that’s always going through our minds and it’s not something that we ignore,” he said. And because some of the changes are so nuanced and difficult to comprehend, Lemmo and his staff also offered their rationale for the proposed changes in a [pdf] to the land board for its February 2010 meeting.

Tuesday’s meeting was in some ways the end of many years of work, but it was also the beginning of the home stretch. Public informational meetings will be held until mid-July, and will be held at six locations across the state between Aug. 5 and Aug. 19.