Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 29, Number 9, 1 September 2012 — PUBLIC LAND DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION SCRUTINIZED [ARTICLE]

PUBLIC LAND DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION SCRUTINIZED

By Kēhaunani Abad, Ph.D. The state, through the newly created Puhlie Land Development Corporation, has the authority to bypass established legal safeguards. The PLDC claims that their activities should not raise eommunity concerns because the PLDC is not exempt from legal safeguards in the development process, such as historic preservation and environmental protection laws. However, PLDC projects are likely exempt from permitting and zoning processes that are the normal eheek points when such legal safeguards are monitored

and enforced. The PLDC's draft administrative rules that are open for puhlie comment at this time do not clarify how the PLDC intends to ensure that legal safeguards are monitored and enforced through a PLDC review process. Because of these and other eoncerns, community members at the

PLDC administrative rules hearings held in August have implored the PLDC to: • Clarify how key laws will be monitored and enforced in light of the PLDC exemptions to permitting and zoning processes • Implement specific criteria for project approval • Provide enforceable protection for Native Hawaiian traditions • Allow for meaningful eommunity input on the island where a project is proposed • Protect puhlie and worker safety • Protect puhlie lands • Notify the puhlie regarding exemptions that apply to eaeh project

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Voice your concerns by submitting written testimony to the PLDC: > Due: Sept. 14 > Tū: randal.y.ikeda@ hawaii.gov orPO Box 2359, Honolulu, Hl 96804