A proposal to transfer about 25 acres in Kakaako worth $200 million to the Office of Hawaiian Affairs to settle long-standing ceded lands claims does not do enough to empower the Native Hawaiian people, a key senator contends.
Sen. Malama Solomon, chairwoman of the Senate Water, Land and Housing Committee, said any settlement that involves a transfer of land should also include regulatory control of the land.
Under terms of the proposed settlement, announced by Gov. Neil Abercrombie and the Office of Hawaiian Affairs in November, OHA would have ownership of the land and the ability to develop a master plan, but any development would remain under the rules and zoning of the Hawaii Community Development Authority, an agency created in 1976 by the Legislature to manage the development of Kakaako.
"We feel that there should be some talk of entitlement, so when the Hawaiians do get the aina that they can immediately go, take that aina to the bank and start turning it around however they see fit," Solomon (D, Hilo-Honokaa) said Monday as Senate and House lawmakers began vetting the proposed settlement.
"This Legislature should not hesitate to vote for a settlement that empowers the Hawaiian people to be able to make their own decisions as to how they’re going to develop the aina," she added. "That is self-determination. That is recognition."
Committees in both chambers deferred decision-making on their respective versions of the bill until later this week.
"Some of the things we want to look at are entitlements so that OHA can, I think, be aggressive about what they do with the area," said Sen. Brickwood Galuteria (D, Downtown-Waikiki), Senate majority leader and chairman of the Hawaiian Affairs Committee.
Testimony from a cross section of Native Hawaiian groups and community members was largely supportive.
Abercrombie and leaders from OHA also lobbied lawmakers for their support.
Abercrombie called the agreement beneficial to both the state and OHA in resolving an issue that dates to 1978, when OHA was formed, over the amount the agency was to receive from revenues generated from lands once belonging to the Hawaiian kingdom.
Under the settlement, the state would give OHA parcels makai of Ala Moana Boulevard and near Kakaako Waterfront Park, for a total of about 25 acres worth just under $200 million. Both the state and OHA retained professional appraisers to make preliminary evaluations of the parcels’ worth.
No cash would be paid. In exchange for the land, any and all claims regarding OHA’s share of ceded land receipts from Nov. 7, 1978, through July 1, 2012, would be resolved.
"The whole key to … Native Hawaiian advancement by Native Hawaiians is (for them) to have the capacity to do it," Abercrombie testified. "This can’t be done by rhetorical observation alone. It has to have a solid land and income-producing process associated with it."
Abercrombie said in pursuing the settlement he sought an outcome emphasizing a solution that could be implemented immediately.
"The day this thing gets approved and signed, that very day OHA can begin negotiations for development," he said.
Attorney General David Louie said nothing prevents OHA from seeking entitlement claims in the future.
"Our idea, at least from the governor and myself, was, ‘Let’s get this done,’" Louie said. "Move it out of the way and then move forward with all of these other things."
Two House committees hearing the settlement delayed decision-making until Wednesday. Two Senate committees plan to vote Friday.
