RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, the Hawaiian home lands were originally set aside to provide native Hawaiians with long term leases of land for homes, farming, and pastoral use, but for many years, this obligation was not fulfilled, and all too many Hawaiians who were on the wait list for Hawaiian home lands passed on without ever receiving them; and

WHEREAS, in recent years, the State has made a concerted effort to fast-track Hawaiian home lands development in order to place more Hawaiians on the lands, such as at the Waiehu Kou subdivision on Maui and the Kalawahine Streamside development near Punchbowl; and

WHEREAS, however, many waitlisted native Hawaiians are still not on the land, with the majority of them currently living on Oahu; and

WHEREAS, the closing of the Barbers Point Naval Air Station resulted in the conversion of five hundred eighty-six acres of land to the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands in compensation for the Navy's use of Hawaiian home lands at the Naval Magazine at Lualualei, and Barbers Point, renamed the traditional Hawaiian name Kalaeloa, has the potential to provide a significant number of residential lots for those on the wait list, once it is cleaned up and infrastructure is installed; and

WHEREAS, the State can fulfill its obligation to get more native Hawaiians off the wait list and into their own homes sooner if the Kalaeloa subdivision is developed; and

WHEREAS, the faster the clean-up of and infrastructure development on Hawaiian home lands at Kalaeloa is accomplished, the faster native Hawaiians on the wait list can lease a new home; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-second Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2003, the Senate concurring, that the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands is requested to implement a fast-track program to facilitate and finish any remaining clean-up of the Hawaiian home lands at Kalaeloa and to install sufficient infrastructure to lease the lots to native Hawaiians; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Department is requested to accomplish these goals by increments if that option is more feasible and would result in awarding leases sooner; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands is requested to submit an annual written report to the Legislature at least twenty days before the beginning of each regular session on its progress in fast-tracking the Kalaeloa site, until all the lots at Kalaeloa have been leased for the first time; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a certified copy of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the Chairperson of the Hawaiian Homes Commission.

Report Title:

DHHL; Kalaeloa