(BIVN) – Thirty Meter Telescope opponents have agreed to move the kūpuna tent to the side and allow full public access on the Mauna Kea Access Road, at least for the next two months, as the planned observatory project has no immediate plans to start construction on the mountain.

On Thursday, an agreement was reached between the office of Hawaiʻi County Mayor Harry Kim and the kiaʻi who are trying to stop the TMT project by holding space on the Mauna Kea Access Road.

It was a celebratory atmosphere inside the kūpuna tent on Thursday afternoon, as county officials joined the kiaʻi to work out the details of the move. The various tents were still on the access road, and traffic was going around the tent on the gravel pathway on the west-side. Vehicles were going back and forth on the road.

“I declare this a victory on our part,” said Dr. Noe Noe Wong-Wilson, a spokesperson for the kūpuna on Maunakea. “A victory because this is an opportunity for us in this Lono season… to do what our ancestors did. This is the time for negotiation, for diplomacy, for reassessment, to live in our environment the way that our environment is telling us to live.”

After announcing that an agreement was reached, the office of Mayor Kim released the letter to the public.