OHA Trustees’ Illegal 2025 Rush to Upzone Kakaako Makai (again)
by Andrew Walden
With House Speaker and Kaka’ako HD26 Rep Scott Saiki replaced by the transsexual heir to the Mehau-connected Roberts Hawaii fortune, OHA Trustees are hoping 2025 will be the year legislators stop laughing at their Kaka’ako Makai upzone bills.
Every year, political insiders exploit Holiday-related public distraction to stuff their own stockings. Ignoring complaints from the Office of Information Practices (OIP), OHA Trustees have set an ‘emergency’ December 27, 2024, Board of Trustees meeting to add two items to the usually dead-on-arrival OHA Legislative package. December 27 is the Senate deadline to submit legislative packages.
Is OHA true to form?
Yes. OIP, in a December 23, 2024 letter to Trustees, helpfully points out the agenda may be illegal:
“Item II.B.2. does not appear to describe what the bill the Board intends to discuss will do, only that it is related to the Hawaii Community Development Authority, and therefore does not appear to be sufficiently detailed so as to inform the public of what the Board intends to discuss. Therefore, discussion of this item at the meeting may violate the Sunshine Law.”
Here are the two items:
A. Relating to the Public Land Trust Work Group recommendation for inventory and audit funding
In 2022, the legislature created the Public Land Trust Working Group to:
- Account for all ceded lands in the public lands trust inventory;
- Account for all income and proceeds derived from the public land trust; and
- Subsequently determine the twenty per cent pro rata share of income and proceeds from the public land trust annually to the office of Hawaiian affairs (OHA) for the betterment of the conditions of native Hawaiians. Session Laws Hawaii 2022, (Act 226) §3(c).
The PLTWG is comprised of six members, three appointed by the Governor’s Office and three appointed by OHA. Id. § 3(b).The PLTWG has met regularly since its inception for a total of seventeen meetings (9/5/2023, 9/21/2023, 10/17/2023, 10/31/2023, 11/20/2023, 01/04/2024, 01/11/2024, 02/01/2024, 02/21/2024, 03/21/2025, 05/06/2024, 06/04/2024, 07/09/2024, 08/12/2024, 10/14/2024, 11/2024, 12/11/2024). The three members appointed by Governor Green are Luis Salaveria (Department of Budget and Finance, Chair), Dawn Chang (Department of Lands and Natural Resources (DLNR) Chair, and Ryan Kanaka’ole, (DLNR First Deputy Director). The OHA Board appointed Trustee Hulu Lindsey, Trustee Brickwood Galuteria, and Sherry Broder (Counsel to OHA). Trustee Mililani Trask served until March 5, 2025. Trustee Lindsey presided over PLTWG meetings. The PLTWG is completing its report to submit to the legislature ahead of the start of the 2025 legislative session. The report will also be posted to https://www.oha.org/PLT-working-group.
In January 2024, the PLTWG unanimously voted and submitted to the legislature a bill, SB3336, seeking an appropriation of $500,000 from the general revenues of the State of Hawai’i for the retention of independent third-party professionals with financial, accounting, and land inventory expertise. The purpose of the third-party professionals would be to address the completeness and accuracy of the Public Land Trust Information System (PLTIS) and Act 178 (2006) reports, which are respectively the current bases for the ceded lands inventory and the accounting of receipts therefrom. State and county agencies self-report for both the PLTIS and Act 178 reports, and there has never been an audit by outside third-party professionals to determine the accuracy of the inventory and accounting of receipts. The PLTWG identified significant problems with the current self[1]reporting system. SB3336 did not have any sponsors and received only one hearing.
At its meeting held on December 11, 2024, the PLTWG received an update that a Governor’s Message will be made to request a $1,000,000 appropriation for retention of the third-party professionals to perform the work described in SB3336 and necessary for the PLTWG to complete its scope of work as set forth in Act 226. The PLTWG also agreed that OHA should re-submit SB3336 as part of its legislative package with an updated amount of $1,000,000 to improve the likelihood that the appropriation is considered by the legislature.
B. Relating to the Hawaii Community Development Authority (Kaka’ako Makai)
The legislature enacted Act 15, Session Laws of Hawaii 2012, (Act 15) as a settlement of income and proceeds due to OHA from the public land trust for the period November 7, 1978, to June 30, 2012. In lieu of payment, Act 15 conveyed certain lands in Kaka’ako, Oahu, valued at approximately $200,000,000 lands), from the State to OHA. Act 15 stated the Kaka’ako Makai lands would remain subject to the Hawaii Community Development Authority (HCDA) “with respect to zoning, land use conditions, and all other matters over which [HCDA] has the authority to act” and “shall be subject to all laws except sections 206E-8, 206E-10 and 206E-34, Hawai’i Revised Statutes, and otherwise provided in this Act 15 § 2.
Following conveyance of the Kaka’ako Makai lands in 2012, OHA completed several studies and master plans related to maximizing beneficial use of the lands and revenue generating potential. More recently, in 2021 and 2022, OHA pursued legislation to exempt from the statutory prohibition against residential use makai of Ala Moana Boulevard, see HRS § 206E-31.5, and to set the height limit for construction at four hundred feet. See HB1267 (2021, 2022). A separate bill to allow for hotel development in Kaka’ako Makai was also introduced. See HB 1264. OHA’s 2021 and 2022 bills related to Kaka’ako Makai were not set for committee hearings.
In 2023, several bills related to Kaka’ako Makai were introduced on both the House and the Senate side. HB270/SB736 would have repealed the restriction against residential development, set the height limit for construction in Kaka’ako Makai at four hundred feet, exempted OHA from the public lands dedication requirement and prohibition against sale or assignment of fee interests in the Kaka’ako Makai area, appropriated funds to OHA to repair the bulkhead, and appropriate funds to OHA to make up the different (sic) between the value of the Kaka’ako Makai lands received from the State and the $200,000,000 due for amounts owed between November 7, 1978, to June 30, 2012. On the Senate side, the bill passed out of the Water and Land and Hawaiian Affairs Committees but was not set for joint hearing before the Ways and Means and Judiciary Committees. On the House side, the bill was not set for any hearing. HB1228/SB248 would have repealed the restriction against residential development and set the height limit for construction in Kaka’ako Makai at four hundred feet, but the bills were not set for committee hearing by either house.
The current bill proposed by Chair Kaiali’i Kahele would repeal the residential prohibition encumbering OHA’s Kaka’ako Makai lands and raise height limits along Ala Moana Boulevard to 400 feet subject to the provision that:
“fifty per cent plus one of the residential units developed on certain parcels . . . be allocated to households with income at or below one hundred forty per cent of the area median income, with priority given to individuals who are essential workers working within a five-mile radius of Kakaako makai, including but not limited to essential workers working for an employer in the health care, hospitality, education, law enforcement, civil service, or construction industry.”
Attachment B § 2. Moreover, all units would be sold to owner occupants, as defined in HRS § 514B-95. See id.
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PDF: OIP Letter to Trustees
PDF: AGENDA
PDF: MEETING PACKAGE