Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 19, Number 11, 1 November 2002 — Bill 53 'theft' [ARTICLE]

Bill 53 'theft'

Hawaiians are witnessing onee again a theft of our nahonal lands. It was not enough to have stolen our independent nation and not enough to have impoverished us and made us a minority in our own country. Now a new outrage is being aeeomplished through use of the City Council's applieahon of a bad law, the forced leasehold conversion law. On Wed., Oct. 23, the Council approved the start of condemnation of the Kāhala Beach development. The leasehold condos sit on Kamehameha Schools land. This is super prime beachfront property ad.jacent to the Kāhala Hotel in Waicalae. The mastar leases run for 60 yeare and will terminate in 2027. For the first 30 years, lessees enjoyed use of this prime beachfront land at a fixed average cost of

just $100 per month. Vlillionaires have been living in spacious apartments, paying less for the landthan some have to pay for parking their autos downtown. KS was forced to accept an annual return of less than a half of one percent peryear on an asset valued at $55 million. KS corrected this grossly unfair return when the leases eame up for renewal in 1997. It sought a reasonable six percent annual return on its land investment for a fixed term of 10 yeare. The rich lessees have been screaming that they will be forced out of their condos because they now have to pay a fair land rent for their luxurious living. The greedy rich onee again show their contem.pt for us ordinaiy citizens. These devastating attacks on our heritage and patrimony will not stop untilthe City's bad law, Chapter 38, is repealed or amended to prevent further taking of our lands. It is the duty of all Hawaiians andthose who love Hawaici to support those efforts. Check out these issues at kupaa.org. Vlahalo. Lono Correa Waimanālo