The state House voted unanimously Thursday to repeal the Public Land Development Corp., foreshadowing the end of a state agency that many lawmakers now admit was a mistake.
The original idea two years ago to create public-private partnerships to develop underused state land may have had good intentions, several lawmakers said, but granting the agency broad exemptions from state and county land use regulations was unacceptable.
Public backlash, driven mainly by environmental, progressive, Native Hawaiian and labor activists, convinced lawmakers to repeal the PLDC rather than weaken the agency’s powers.
“We all make mistakes, and it was a mistake that we passed it out. And we’re glad that (we were) able to rectify it — not all the time it happens,” House Speaker Joseph Souki (D, Waihee-Waiehu-Wailuku) told reporters after the vote. “And this Legislature was very courageous to listen to the public and to admit that it made a mistake.”
Rep. Cindy Evans (D, Kaupulehu-Waimea-Halaula), chairwoman of the House Water and Land Committee, said she believes “democracy is well served” by a repeal.
The state Senate Ways and Means Committee has scheduled a hearing today on a PLDC repeal. Senate President Donna Mercado Kim (D, Kalihi Valley-Moanalua-Halawa) said the Senate would likely vote on its own version of a repeal or agree to the House’s version.
“I believe the Senate is also on track to repeal at this point,” Kim said.
Sen. Donovan Dela Cruz (D, Wheeler-Wahiawa-Schofield) and Sen. Malama Solomon (D, Kaupulehu-Waimea-North Hilo), who were behind the PLDC but have been critical of its implementation by the Abercrombie administration, will urge Senate leaders to agree to the House version of the repeal so a final vote can be taken soon.
The PLDC will likely be remembered as one of state government’s clumsiest blunders — similar to van cams and the gas cap — but claims by some lawmakers that they were somehow misled into passing the law are hollow.
The House voted 40-9 to approve the PLDC in 2011, with most of the opposition coming from House dissidents who at the time were looking to undermine then-House Speaker Calvin Say’s leadership.
The Senate approved the PLDC 23-1.
Last year the House and Senate agreed to expand the PLDC’s scope by giving the agency even greater development rights, although the House vote was a close 29-22.
It was only after public protests last year at hearings for the PLDC’s administrative rules did traction build at the Legislature behind a repeal. The protests were fueled largely by the groups with influence among majority Democrats, not the same cross section of the public that doomed van cams and the gas cap.
Gov. Neil Abercrombie has said that he would consider a PLDC repeal, but has urged lawmakers to weigh alternatives that could generate new revenue for the state.
The House has rejected the Abercrombie administration’s proposal for a new development authority for harbors and parks, and both the House and Senate have been cautious about the governor’s 21st-century schools initiative to redevelop public school land.
The unanimous retreat on the PLDC by the House on Thursday showed how politically unpopular the agency has become even though it has not formally identified a single development project or turned over a pebble of earth.
Rep. Gene Ward (R, Kalama Valley-Queen’s Gate-Hawaii Kai) claimed he was “hoodwinked” two years ago. “This is a teachable moment because there are sons and daughters of the PLDC still alive in this body,” he said.
Rep. Faye Hanohano (D, Hawaiian Acres-Pahoa-Kalapana) was one of the nine lawmakers who had voted “no” on the PLDC two years ago. She thanked her colleagues “for doing the right thing” and correcting the House’s mistake.
