Legislation to create a State Capitol Commission empowered to direct development of a master-planned Civic Center in downtown Honolulu will be presented to the 1961 Legislature.
The bill, establishing a commission with broad powers to regulate or acquire lands and buildings necessary for the civic center and surrounding areas, will be introduced in the House by Representative George M. Koga.
The call for legislative action on the creation of a Capitol Commission was announced today in a resolution drafted by the State Capitol Architect Advisory Committee, of which Koga is a co-chairman with Robert R. Midkiff.
Midkiff said the Capitol Commission would probably evolve as a joint commission with Federal, State and City representation. This representation was implied in a … letter addressed to the City Planning Commission this week by the Capital Advisory Committee.
The letter asked the City to defer approval of any plans for buildings within the Civic Center pending creation of the State Capitol Commission.
The letter said the commission could have authority to “control building heights, setback lines and the siting of both government and private buildings … and to disperse appropriated funds for the annual acquisition of property.”
Midkiff, at today’s State Capitol Committee meeting, said: “We came into this by the back door after findings by a Mainland survey team for the committee indicated this was the way to operate.”
He said the object was to avoid “unplanned decentralization of government.”
Presumably Hawaii’s State Capitol Commission would be modeled after a Capitol Planning Commission established in Oregon in 1949. Oregon was one of eight states visited by the four-man State Capitol Committee team last year.
The team studied capitol development plans in a search for reference points which would help in planning Hawaii’s proposed $14 million capitol.
State Administrative Director Leo C. Pritchard said today that Governor William F. Quinn would look favorably on the creation of a power-weighted State Capitol Commission to guide Civic Center development.
