The Office of Hawaiian Affairs has rejected House Speaker Scott Saiki's offer for the agency to drop its plans for residential towers in Kakaʻako in exchange for a deal worth more than $190 million.
The new proposal from Saiki would pay OHA for an easement over their nine parcels of land, thereby restricting residential development and preserving the area's open spaces. He's represented the Kakaʻako-Ala Moana district for nearly three decades.
The OHA Board of Trustees voted unanimously against Saiki's proposal at a special meeting Thursday saying the dollar amounts represent a small fraction of what OHA is owed.
"My feeling is that the public wants to minimize that kind of development. It's important for us to maintain places like Kakaʻako Makai that give the public access to the ocean, to the surf, to park space, and I believe that we can work with OHA to develop a plan to do that," Saiki told The Conversation before the OHA vote.
Capsun Poe, Community Engagement Director and Chief Advocate at OHA, said the agency may be open to other offers but not this one.
"First of all, it's not that it's 'no' forever. It was a 'no' on that specific proposal," Poe explained.
"Some of the things we talked about, or our trustees I should say, when they took that unanimous vote to reject the speaker’s proposal is really that the two sides are too far apart in the straight dollar amount, as well as some other considerations that are in there," he said.
OHA took ownership of these 30 acres in Kakaʻako, makai of Ala Moana Boulevard, back in 2012 as a settlement for long-overdue ceded lands revenues. Last year, a public relations campaign renamed the area Hakuone. It was the first step in asking lawmakers to give them rights to develop residential units in Kaka’ako Makai.
"I think we’re also trying to lay the foundation or some building blocks for future conversations and especially future action that would make OHA whole for all of these efforts," Poe said.
However, a 17-year-old ban on residential development in Kakaʻako has prevented OHA from moving ahead with its plans for the area.
