2007-07-06 TSUPERSTORES - Laserfiche WebLink

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corporations, the State of Hawaii made a very generous settlement of $600,000,000 to the Department of Hawaiian Home. And I think thats a heck of a lot of money to put infrastructure on, rather than to go get general leasing. So I would be opposed to it. I leave you with this one caveat, that development in Hilo was allowed to happen again up in the Waiakea Uka area when they wanted to develop there; and how it was developed, it was developed by the County of Hawaii taking 25 acres of Hawaiian Home lands for the flood control. The flood control is there, thats what allowed the upper parts of Hilo to be developed; and that flood control starts at the 4- mile bridge, ascends right through the Department of Hawaiian Home lands, and its there. Today Im ashamed to say that the County has not maintained it properly. Its overgrown again. So it will create a problem at the next flood that comes down through that area. But I believe its time that the County takes a stand. And, well, anyway, the Planning Commission does after being correctly advised by your Corporation Counsel -. Please dont get me wrong. If you have the right to do it, please by all means go ahead and do it. If you dont have the right to do it, dont do it. And when I say the right, I mean the authority and the jurisdiction to do it based on theHawaiianHomesCommissionAct,andalltheotheropinionsthatcameoutthatsaysyou couldnt rezone, you couldnt do this. And what is being brought to light in the paper is that theyre saying even if you created a ban were still going to go do it on Hawaiian Homes because you dont have the authority to do it, to stop us anyway. So I think thats an arrogant attitude to take in spite of the fact. And remember, what the Department of Hawaiian Home do does not reflect on the beneficiaries. Hawaiian Home is a State entity, so thank you. WATANABE:I understand your emotion. And, personally, to be honest with you, I think Hawaiian Home lands should be used for the Hawaiians also. However, I think I should allow our counsel to briefly explain to you that, and I think hes going to say this, that we really dont have jurisdiction over them. Okay? KAHAWAIOLAA:Well, I need for them to know. WATANABE:And so with that Im going to turn it over to counsel. KAHAWAIOLAA:Thank you, thank you, Mr. Chairman. TORIGOE:Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I wish that there was a real crystal clear simple answer that can be given to this. I think generally speaking there is no case that really addresses this exactly in Hawaii. What we end up with, I think the best thing we can probably say is that with respect to commercial uses like this it becomes, you know, theres some question. It has not been exactly decided. But I think what we fall back on at this point is that, what it boils down to is that when you trace down what you can trace through the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act and HRS, Chapter 171, that the placement of Commercial and Industrial and such business uses is supposed to be at least consistent with County zoning requirements. And so basically the County has entered into a memorandum of agreement with DHHL which tries to accomplish that. Where there is a pallet of County zoning requirements, DHHL retains the ability to designate what kind of zoning should apply to its lands, and then the County along with DHHL administers that zoning consistent with other County zoning. So thats, I think, the most concise answer I can give you. WATANABE:Thank you. Are there any other questions from the Commissioners of the testifier? No. 5 EXHIBIT B