STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2088

                                   Honolulu, Hawaii
                                                     , 2000

                                   RE:  S.B. No. 460
                                        




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. 460 entitled: 

     "A BILL FOR AN ACT MAKING AN APPROPRIATION FOR THE RESIDENTS
     OF MAUNALAHA SUBDIVISION,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this bill is to appropriate funds for
infrastructural improvements to the Maunalaha Valley subdivision
on the island of Oahu.

     Testimony in support of the measure was received from the
Office of Hawaiian Affairs and the Maunalaha Valley Community
Association.  The Department of Land and Natural Resources in
oral testimony did not support the measure due to budgetary
constraints.

     Your Committee finds that families of Hawaiian ancestry
living in the Maunalaha region of Makiki Heights have been living
in the area for a very long time, some since the Great Mahele.
Act 225, Session Laws of Hawaii 1981, authorized the Department
of Land and Natural Resources to negotiate and enter into long-
term residential leases with residents who met certain specified
criteria.  When the leases were offered in 1983, however, only
thirty leases were executed and only a few lessees have been able
to construct new homes.

     The remaining lessees of Maunalaha live in substandard
housing, and have not been able to upgrade or rebuild their homes

 
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                                   STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2088
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since they are unable to qualify for loans due to substandard
infrastructure and because they do not own the land.

     Your Committee also finds it unfortunate that in the middle
of Honolulu's urban core, these substandard conditions exist,
particularly in light of the fact that this issue is not a new
one.  In light of these findings, your Committee believes that
the infrastructural improvements are needed for the Maunalaha
Valley residents who have waited long enough for the most basic
of infrastructural needs.

     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. 460 and recommends that it pass Second
Reading 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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