The state has embarked on what could be its most consequential land-use enterprise in decades, one that ideally could bring in more revenues for the caretaking of its most valued resources and could result in positive redevelopment of some properties that now languish unproductively.
The problem with consequential enterprises, however, is that the consequences aren’t always the outcomes of our dreams. This doesn’t mean caution should overtake initiative, but it does mean the public had better keep close tabs on its government.
The issue is the establishment of a new state agency, the Public Land Development Corp., which seeks to improve management of state lands, in large part through partnerships with private entities. It was born in the passage of Senate Bill 1555 last session and has barely taken its first breath. The board has just begun meetings and has yet to hire its executive director.
Its first major job is the preparation of a "public land optimization plan." At the top of the job list is an inventory of public lands with "suitable, adequate development potential that are or will become available that can be used to meet present and future land development needs." The plan also will include strategies and proposals for marketing projects and "protection of culturally sensitive areas."
But it’s the open-ended sound of that Job No. 1 that got the attention of Hawaii environmentalists. Rightly, they became especially concerned when reading about the law’s provision for the corporation’s key exemption "from all statutes, ordinances, charter provisions and rules of any government agency." Those exemptions cover "special improvement district assessments or requirements, land use, zoning and construction standards for subdivisions, development and improvement of land; and the construction, improvement and sale of homes thereon." The caveat is that the "public land planning activities of the corporation shall be coordinated with the county planning departments and the county land use plans, policies and ordinances."
That’s quite an opening, put in the hands of a corporation directed by legislative appointees and key department heads of the state administration.
State Sen. Donovan Dela Cruz, who chairs the Senate Water, Land and Housing Committee and introduced the bill, said this aspect cuts through red tape without eliminating government oversight. That’s because the proposals still would have to come to the state Board of Land and Natural Resources. The land board could set conditions and controls for projects; approvals don’t need to be a carte blanche.
That may be true, but it’s still unnerving to contemplate how that kind of shortcut could play out. Dela Cruz underscored that the corporation is bound by state laws, including open-government provisions. But sometimes things do go awry. The new agency’s first scheduled meeting had to be postponed because writer Pat Tummons, who edits the newsletter Environment Hawai‘i, found out about the meeting only hours before it was supposed to have convened. Under the Sunshine Law, Tummons had earlier requested advance notification of the meeting. That was surely just a glitch, but it was an inauspicious start, all the same.
Dela Cruz points to examples of resources that could provide more opportunity for public enjoyment and economic development than they do now. In his own district, he imagines Lake Wilson with a fishing lodge and Haleiwa Boat Harbor as more of a commercial draw. He holds up photos of the underused Mauna Kea State Park that could be realized as a site for Olympic training. And partnerships could improve the chances of successful development of state lands near Honolulu’s planned rail system, too.
The new agency bears watching to see if it can bring such dreams to fruition. But the corporation already includes appointees with political connections that suddenly can wield even more influence over state resources. Land and power are a potent pairing in Hawaii, because so much of each seems concentrated in so few hands. And the corporation bears watching for those reasons as well.
