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HomeMy WebLinkAboutComm No 0044.10 - Testimony - CA-27 - PONC fund - Easements - Eminent DomainDoug Sensenig 40 Waimea, HI 96743 40 Testimony before the Charter Commission March 8, 2019 Re: CA18, CA27 I'rn Doug Sensenig of Waimea. I am a former attorney and have been involved in land conservation since the late 1980's. As an attorney, I drafted conservation easements and afterward served as a board chair and executive director of Coastal Mountains Land Trust in Maine and as executive director of Hawaii Island Land Trust until its merger with the land trusts on Maui, Oahu and Kauai in 2011. I'm here to urge you to approve CA -18 because it improves the operation of the 2% land fund so it can implement the mandate of the voters. There have clearly been bottlenecks in the process, and CA -18 should remedy them. As to CA -27, I urge you to reject the amendment referring to the use of eminent domain using 2% land funds. I say it refers to the use of eminent domain because the proposed language in subsection (h) does not add to or subtract from the powers the County already has. It's redundant and unnecessary. The proposed language does, however, add a discordant note to the Fund that also needs to be considered.. Historically, the federal government has frequently utilized eminent domain, mainly for large infrastructure projects such as dams, airports, military bases, and interstate highways. Large-scale eminent domain has also been used to create national parks and other conservation areas, especially during the Depression when government wanted to move quickly to create jobs. Perhaps the most notorious use of eminent domain for public parkland was in the creation of Shenandoah National Park. The forcible removal of hundreds of families from their homes and farms created bitterness that persists to this day. Eminent domain was further discredited when it was used in recent decades by governments to take private land and then turn it over to private developers (Kelo v. City of New London.) Eminent domain is therefore a tool that should be used rarely and carefully. A parallel method of preserving land emerged in the United States emerged in the latei800's that was based on the concept of willing landowners working with nonprofits to jointly preserve land. The Trustees of Reservations in Massachusetts is the oldest land trust in the world and an exemplar of the concept of land conservation being a community good and community responsibility that requires participation by as many citizens as possible. In Hawaii it's nothing new and we all know it as kuleana. Comm. No. 44.10 Z 445 ie./ The popularity of the 2% Fund is partly due to the people of Hawaii Island's sense of kuleana. Land protection financed by the Fund is currently an entirely positive and remarkable process that enables everyone to benefit, from the landowner who, because of a conservation easement, may be able to afford to stay on their land, to conservation groups that have identified lands for preservation that are critical for protection of habitat, clean water and air, and locally grown food. Eminent domain has no place in the 2% land fund process. The mere threat of its use sours the relationships necessary for conservation success. Of course eminent domain is necessary at times, and the County already has this power. The amendment does nothing to extend or restrict the County's eminent domain power, but it inserts a discordant note into the 2% Charter provisions that needs to be avoided. Let's keep the 2% Land Fund as an expression of our kuleana and discard Amendment CA -27. Briefly, the proposed 10-15 Section (g) states that a conservation easement "shall be the preferred method" for achieving the goals of the provision. Presumably, this provision assumes that an easement is a cheaper alternative, and it maintains ownership in private hands. I suggest that the provision remain as it is; the best method of protecting land is the one that is needed in the particular and unique circumstances of each piece of property. Outright purchase may make sense sometimes, and an easement may make sense in others. Please reject CA -27. Thank you!