Members of the City Council Budget Committee said Wednesday they want to prohibit Honolulu rail officials from purchasing additional private property east of the planned Middle Street station in Kalihi.

The committee voted 4-1 to advance Resolution 16-160, citing the uncertainty of whether the city will be able to find the funding to build the line to Ala Moana Center as promised under a 20-mile route described in an agreement with federal transit officials. The resolution is expected to go before the full Council at its Sept. 7 meeting.

Council Budget Chairwoman Ann Kobayashi said the resolution’s purpose is to ensure the city does not force landowners to sell property in areas where it’s uncertain whether the transit line will pass.

“Let’s try to have concern for some of these businesses that would have to close and, for years, their property would be vacant,” she said.

The Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation board of directors adopted a similar resolution last week.

HART acting Executive Director Michael Formby, who took over the reins from Dan Grabauskas last week, said the agency should get a clearer picture after top local officials meet with Federal Transit Administration officials next week in San Francisco to discuss a recovery plan for dealing with the funding shortage and its relationship with the FTA’s $1.55 billion grant for the project.

“We expect to get some guidance from the FTA that will be relevant to these kinds of issues,” Formby told the Budget Committee.

Councilman Joey Manahan, who heads the Council Transportation Committee, was the lone “no” vote. Manahan said he prefers he and his colleagues wait until after next week’s San Francisco meetings before voting on the resolution since local officials should get a better fix on the project’s situation then.

Formby and other HART officials did not state their preference on when the resolution should be adopted.

But Jesse Souki, HART director of planning and permitting, said the language in the Council’s version is too broad and would require properties already in the process of being acquired to be halted. He asked that the Council consider adopting the HART board’s language.

“The board’s resolution talks about suspending … the filing of eminent domain actions beyond Middle Street but allowing us to continue with actions already ongoing,” Souki said. HART currently has filed for condemnation action on two properties east of Middle Street, he said.

The HART resolution also allows the agency to continue purchase of 29 other parcels east of Middle Street where the owners have already agreed willingly to sell their properties, Souki said. Owners of four other properties who had previously agreed later changed their minds and got out of escrow upon hearing about the uncertainty over whether the line will go to Ala Moana Center, he said.

The board’s version leaves 43 parcels, where there are no signed agreements with owners, to be hands-off until there is a clearer picture of the project’s future, Souki said. Eminent-domain proceedings have started for two parcels.

The Council resolution “seems to request that all acquisition be stopped, although I think the desire of the Council was focused on (actions) past Middle Street, and that’s what the board’s position was,” he said.

Kobayashi, the Council’s staunchest rail opponent over the years, said she has no qualms with taking HART’s position and will work with the agency to address its concerns. “We’re not trying to interfere with proceedings that have started,” she said.

“It’s just so sad that (businesses) have to close, and then you drive by and see these empty lots when they could have been operating and making some income until you’re ready to actually build there,” she said.