STAND. COM. REP. NO.174

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2001

RE: S.B. No. 1441

S.D. 1

 

 

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2001

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Hawaiian Affairs and Water, Land, Energy and Environment, to which was referred S.B. No. 1441 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT MAKING AN APPROPRIATION FOR THE KIKALA-KEOKEA SUBDIVISION,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to appropriate funds to complete the installation of waterline infrastructure in the Kikala-Keokea subdivision on the island of Hawaii.

Testimony in support of the measure was received from the Hawaii County Economic Opportunity Council. The Department of Land and Natural Resources stated it could not support the measure.

Your Committees find that Act 314, Session Laws of Hawaii 1991, as amended (Act 314), authorized the Department of Land and Natural Resources to negotiate and enter into long-term leases with persons of Hawaiian ancestry who were dispossessed or displaced from their homes at Kalapana as a result of the volcanic eruptions on the island of Hawaii. Act 314 also authorized the Department of Land and Natural Resources to subdivide and provide for the creation of a residential subdivision in the Kikala-Keokea homestead area for persons who receive long-term leases from the Department.

During that same legislative session, the Legislature also enacted Act 242, Session Laws of Hawaii 1991 (Act 242), which appropriated $1.75 million to provide low interest loans of up to $35,000 to assist persons displaced or dispossessed by volcanic eruptions in the Kalapana area. To this date, only one person has received a loan under this program.

One of the reasons many former Kalapana residents have not utilized the resources made available to them to relocate and rebuild in the Kikala-Keokea area is that, unfortunately, the area set aside for this purpose, was, and still is, without adequate infrastructure necessary to sustain a community. The Department of Land and Natural Resources has only recently been able to complete the installation of subdivision roads and a waterline connection to the county water system.

Although the waterline connection to the county water system has been completed, there remains other water infrastructural needs. Subordinate waterlines, service laterals with meters, and fire hydrants are needed within the subdivision as well as an extension of the waterline to the Kapoho end of the subdivision. Other improvements to bring the subdivision up to county standards include upgrading the roads and installing drainage improvements that require a perimeter channel and berm.

Your Committees believe that the displaced and dispossessed former residents of Kalapana who have been waiting for over a decade to replace their homes and that the State should expedite the process of permanently situating these persons in a community of their own.

Your Committees have amended the measure to require the Office of Hawaiian Affairs to match the appropriation in order for any general funds to be released.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Hawaiian Affairs and Water, Land, Energy and Environment that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1441, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1441, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Hawaiian Affairs and Water, Land, Energy and Environment,

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LORRAINE R. INOUYE, Chair

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JONATHAN CHUN, Chair