LIHU'E, Kaua'i — The state Board of Land and Natural Resources moved ahead yesterday toward offering new, 20-year leases to current occupants of 94 vacation cabins at Koke'e State Park.

Despite concerns about some aspects of a draft lease, most Kaua'i residents at the board meeting on Kaua'i said they were cautiously optimistic about the outcome.

The state's "past record has been very poor" in listening to the concerns of Kaua'i families, some of whom have had cabins in the remote park for generations, said Peter Dease, whose family has had a cabin at Koke'e since 1937. "But these people (the current land board) seem to be listening to us."

Dease said he was encouraged by yesterday's meeting.

Several others attending the standing-room-only meeting in a Kaua'i Island Utility Co-op boardroom thanked the board, Chairwoman Laura Thielen and Kaua'i lawmakers for balancing the needs of longtime lessees with those of other Kaua'i and state residents who want a chance to lease the rustic wooden cabins.

Longtime lessee Wayne Jacintho said he's concerned about the state's "take it or leave it" attitude about the leases. Among his concerns was language that he feared could make a cabin occupant liable for an accident on an adjacent state road.

"I wish that the state parks were subject to the same terms and conditions of our leases," Jacintho said. "If they were, they would be evicted in a year" because of deteriorating facilities.

But, Jacintho added, "this is the most the board has ever given me reason to hope."

Effective with this set of 20-year leases, the signers are acknowledging that the state owns the cabins themselves, as well as the land they sit on.

Leases that ran from 1985 to 2005 included a clause that at the end of the lease term the cabins became property of the state. Some cabin occupants sued the state, alleging that the state doesn't own the cabins, but the state prevailed.

That could re-emerge as a point of contention, however, if a state appellate court overturns the lower court decision.

The Land Board agreed unanimously to send all cabin occupants a copy of the proposed lease, lease-rent schedule and proposed historic district design guidelines soon, then negotiate terms of the lease based on feedback.

New lease-rent amounts range from $2,500 to $8,000 per year, up from the prior $1,800 to $5,000. Some cabin occupants said they found the increases reasonable. Others said the increases would make it difficult for former lessees of modest means to hang onto the cabins.

Current occupants who dispute the new amounts may make counter-proposals. The negotiations are supposed to conclude by the end of this year, Thielen said.

Cabins may be used a maximum of 180 days a year and may not be subleased or rented out.

In January, the state Parks Division will begin assessing how to lease cabins not re-leased by current occupants, plus vacant lots and formerly vacant cabins, Thielen said.

Another issue raised by cabin occupants yesterday was the state calling for the closing of some cabin cesspools.

The drinking water in the area is not contaminated with bacteria or viruses and the cost of new, above-ground wastewater treatment would be cost-prohibitive in the remote area, they said.

Cabin lessee Tony Locricchio said he believes the cost for providing new wastewater treatment would be so expensive that the state would lose money.

There's no need when the water is fine, added cabin lessee Frederick Wichman.