Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 11, Number 12, 1 December 1994 — OHA tries to block sale of ceded lands [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

OHA tries to block sale of ceded lands

by Patrick Johnston In a Nov. 4 emergency meeting, the OHA Board of Trustees i voted to authorize a lawsuit against the state Housing Finance and Development Corporation for violations of an agreement OHA, the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands and HFDC reached regarding the sale of over 500 acres of ceded lands for a housing project in Lahaina, Maui. The land is being developed by C. Brewer whieh plans to build, in its first phase, over a hundred fee-simple homes on the property. OHA, while opposed to the sale of any ceded lands, was forced into the negotiations by legislation passed by the state in 1992.

The legislation, Act 318, says that the state ean sell ceded lands in Lahaina and Kealakehe on the Big Island and that OHA and DHHL would receive 20 and 30 percent respectively of the land's fair market value. The land value would be determined by appraisers retained by OHA and DHHL, and the Department of Land and Natural Resources and HFDC. Appraisers ffom both sides determined market values by Nov. 1, 1993 and agreed to a per-acre pnee of $48,439 on May 16, 1994. Act 318 states that the land be conveyed to HFDC within 90 days of the appraisal. This conveyance never took plaee and in a letter from HFDC to OHA, HFDC agreed that another appraisal was necessary because statutory requirements had not been met. HFDC, however, had put improvements into the land after the first appraisal. In a meeting on Oct. 21, 1994 HFDC director Joseph Conant agreed that a new appraisal would include all infrastructural improvements, improvements that had increased the value of the land. The parties present at the meeting included representatives from OHA, DHHL, and HFDC. Deputy Attorney General George Kaeo was also at the meeting. continued on page 13

Clayton Hee

OHA suit continued from 1

Two weeks later, on Nov. 2, HFDC informed OHA that they had changed their position and would pay onIy the amount based on the original appraisal. On Nov. 4, HFDC officials presented OHA trustees with a eheek for $5,573,604.40, a figure whieh represented the 20 percent share of the value of the Lahaina lands owed to OHA based on the first appraisal. The OHA Board rejected the eheek, then voted to file suit. The suit claims that HFDC's position is in violation of Act 318 whieh requires the agency to pay OHA a 20 percent share of the fair market value of the land based on an appraisal done no more than 90 days before the conveyance of the land. OHA is also using the suit to renew its opposition to the 1992 state law that allows the state to develop ceded lands at Lahaina and Kealakehe. The suit

claims that the legislation is in violation of Article XII, sections 4 and 5 of the state Constitution thaf says ceded lands are to be held as a "public trust for native Hawaiians and the general public." Selling the public lands in fee, the suit claims, would alienate them from the people and erode the public land trust. OHA wants to use the suit to block the eonveyance of the lands to private owners and get a ruling from the court that would block any future eonveyance of these lands to a third party that is not an agency of the state of Hawai'i. If those demands are not met, OHA asserts that a second appraisal must be carried out, one that would include, as HFDC had aggreed to on October 22 meeting, the improvements they made.