STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2093
                                   Honolulu, Hawaii
                                                     , 2000

                                   RE:  S.B. No. 2736
                                        S.D. 1




Honorable Norman Mizuguchi
President of the Senate
Twentieth State Legislature
Regular Session of 2000
State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Water, Land, and Hawaiian Affairs, to
which was referred S.B. No. 2736 entitled: 

     "A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO KIKALA-KEOKEA,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this bill is to provide for infrastructural
improvements in the Kikala-Keokea region of the island of Hawaii
for persons of Hawaiian ancestry who were displaced by lava
flows.

     Testimony in support of the measure was received from the
Department of Land and Natural Resources, the Housing and
Community Development Corporation of Hawaii, the Office of
Hawaiian Affairs, the Hawaii County Economic Opportunity Council,
the Maunalaha Valley Community Association, and a private
citizen.

     Your Committee finds that Act 314, Session Laws of Hawaii
1991, as amended, authorized the Department of Land and Natural
Resources to negotiate and enter into long-term leases with
persons of Hawaiian ancestry who were dispossessed or displaced
from their homes at Kalapana as a result of the volcanic
eruptions on the island of Hawaii.  Act 314 also authorized the
Department of Land and Natural Resources to subdivide and provide
for the creation of a residential subdivision in the Kikala-
Keokea homestead area for persons who receive long-term leases
from the Department of Land and Natural Resources.


 
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                                   STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2093
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     Your Committee also finds that to assist those persons
displaced by volcanic eruptions in the Kalapana area, the
Legislature also enacted Act 242, Session Laws of Hawaii 1991 to
provide low interest loans for those persons to rebuild their
homes in the Kikala-Keokea area.  Unfortunately, neither of the
two acts provided for the infrastructural improvements necessary
for the area to become habitable.

     Your Committee believes that the bill is necessary to assist
the Kikala-Keokea residents in finally being able to enjoy basic
infrastructural amenities and that concerns over added costs to
the State are negligible in that the bill proposes to utilize
funds that were originally appropriated in 1991.

     Your Committee has amended the bill by recasting the
language in section 6 to more appropriately effectuate the bill's
intent.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your
Committee on Water, Land, and Hawaiian Affairs that is attached
to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and
purpose of S.B. No. 2736, as amended herein, and recommends that
it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as
S.B. No. 2736, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways
and Means.

                                   Respectfully submitted on
                                   behalf of the members of the
                                   Committee on Water, Land, and
                                   Hawaiian Affairs,



                                   ______________________________
                                   COLLEEN HANABUSA, Chair

 
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