A reformed effort by the state Office of Hawaiian Affairs to permit housing on land it owns in Kakaako has come up short at the Legislature.
Two Senate committees on Friday indefinitely deferred a bill that proposed to partly repeal a ban on residential development in Kakaako, makai of Ala Moana Boulevard, for the benefit of OHA.
The decision sidelines further consideration of Senate Bill 534 this year.
OHA has been trying for more than a decade to convince a majority of state lawmakers to allow residential development on at least some of the 31 acres OHA accepted from the state in 2012 to partially settle claims against the state over unpaid revenue generated from former Hawaiian crown lands, referred to as ceded land.
In several prior years, the Senate passed OHA-backed bills to allow residential development in the area known as Kakaako Makai. Those prior bills were defeated in the House, where they were opposed by then-Rep. Scott Saiki, who represented Kakaako and during that time was House speaker or majority leader with great power over legislation.
Saiki lost his bid for reelection in August.
This year 18 representatives in the 51-member House expressed early support for OHA’s proposed
legislation. SB 534 was introduced by 11 of 25 state
senators.
In early February three Senate committees — Housing, Hawaiian Affairs, and Water and Land — advanced SB 534 in unanimous or near-unanimous votes
after a three-hour public hearing where more than 400 pages of written testimony were submitted.
Supporters of the legislation outnumbered opponents by more than 3-to-1.
Two more Senate committees — Judiciary and Ways and Means — intended to take action on the bill
Feb. 26. Instead, Judiciary Committee Chair Sen. Karl Rhoads announced Feb. 26 that a new draft of SB 534 was being proposed by the two committees and that a public hearing was scheduled for two days later, Friday, because proposed amendments were pretty substantial.
Yet on Friday, Rhoads (D, Nuuanu-Downtown-Iwilei) recommended deferring the bill indefinitely without the planned hearing because some senators didn’t support the new draft.
“We were scheduled to take testimony, but we have not found a way forward on this bill,” he announced. “Several proposals have been put out there, and we don’t have a consensus on them.”
Sen. Donovan Dela Cruz, Ways and Means chair, added that the chairs of the three committees that previously advanced the bill did not agree with the proposed new draft.
“We couldn’t reach agreement with the subject-matter chairs, so we’ll be deferring,” Dela Cruz (D, Mililani-Wahiawa-Whitmore Village) said in the hearing room.
New provisions in the proposed draft included a different way for the Hawaii Community Development Authority, the state agency regulating development in Kakaako, to fund area infrastructure improvements, and forming a working group to help transfer regulation of Kakaako development from HCDA to the city.
OHA expressed support for the proposed draft in written testimony. Some opponents of earlier versions of SB 534 opposed the proposed draft.
Kai Kahele, who spearheaded the push for SB 534 as OHA’s board chair, said Monday in a statement that he was disappointed by the outcome but respects the legislative process and accepts the decision.
“I am proud of the way Team OHA presented the case for affordable workforce housing in Honolulu’s urban core, and we remain committed to addressing the needs of our beneficiaries,” said Kahele, a former state and federal lawmaker who was elected to the agency’s board of trustees in August. “As for the future of our lands in Kakaako Makai, the Board of Trustees will determine the best path forward in alignment with our mission and
responsibilities.”
Some opponents of SB 534 suggested that the state swap other land for the nine parcels that OHA accepted in lieu of $200 million.
“It would make sense if the State wants to help OHA develop affordable housing to offer additional, more appropriate land elsewhere,” Jonathan Lott said in written testimony for Friday’s anticipated hearing. “Perhaps the State could take back the Kakaako Makai ceded lands in exchange.”
Sherry Broder told the Senate Judiciary and Ways and Means committees in written testimony that the current housing prohibition in Kakaako Makai is unfair to Native Hawaiians.
“OHA should be allowed to maximize this asset just as Howard Hughes (Corp.) and other developers have been doing in Kakaako,” she said. “OHA’s plan is excellent and will bring benefits to everyone: more housing, attractive development and an income stream to OHA for the benefit of Native
Hawaiians.”
Through SB 534, OHA sought to allow towers rising up to 400 feet, twice the current limit, on two of its parcels fronting Ala Moana Boulevard. The bill also mandated that more than 50% of all resulting homes on these two parcels be reserved for Hawaii resident households that don’t earn over 140% of Oahu’s median income.
Furthermore, buyers
of these reserved homes would have to be owner-occupants, and a preference would be given to those who work within 5 miles of the area in “essential” fields that include education, health care, law enforcement, hospitality and
construction.
Kahele framed the objective as helping the state
address a chronic affordable- housing shortage.
“We are not building homes for out-of-state investors,” he said during a community meeting in
January.
The three Senate committees amended the original version of the bill to require that the reserved homes have perpetual price limits keeping them affordable for all future owners with the same income restriction.
On three other OHA parcels, the agency proposed market-priced housing within existing height limits and for only Hawaii residents with an owner-occupant restriction, or perhaps a hotel or condo-hotel on one parcel.
Proceeds from market-priced housing were intended to help fund OHA programs that benefit Hawaiians and to allow the agency to pay for other planned improvements on its Kakaako land, including a Hawaiian cultural center and public waterfront promenade along the Ewa edge of Kewalo Basin Small Boat Harbor.
The Legislature banned residential use of land in
Kakaako Makai in 2006 to block HCDA’s plan to have a developer create a mix of housing, commercial uses and recreational public spaces after project opponents argued that it was a bad use of public land and would curtail public access to the waterfront.
Today the area includes a mix of warehouses, car dealerships, office buildings, parking lots, a marine research lab, a waterfront restaurant, a ship repair
facility, a children’s museum, the University of
Hawaii medical school
and Kakaako Waterfront Park.
