Lease plan for
Kokee lots dropped
House conferees have withdrawn their controversial proposal to give long-term state leases on cabin lots in Kauai's Kokee State Park, according to House Water and Land Use Committee Chairman Ezra Kanoho.
The House side decided "it is reasonable" to await results of a Kokee State Park master plan to see if it addresses concerns raised by cabin owners, he said yesterday.
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Republican lawmakers had questioned why some of Hawaii's most prominent and wealthy kamaaina families would get what Sen. Fred Hemmings (R, Lanikai-Waimanalo) called a "sweetheart deal" on their cabin lots.
GOP leaders noted that the Kokee provision was put into a bill involving a Kauai hotel lease by the House Finance Committee, whose vice chairwoman, Bertha Kawakami (D, Niihau-Poipu-Kokee), holds one of the leases.
Kawakami insisted she had nothing to do with the provision, although she sympathized with the cabin owners who face competition for their leases, which come up for auction every 10 years.
Lawmakers have been assured by the Department of Land & Natural Resources that the Kokee master plan will be completed by the end of this year, and with the leases not expiring until 2006, there is time for the Legislature to address any shortcomings they find in the master plan, Kanoho (D, Wailua-Koloa) said.
House and Senate conferees were scheduled to meet today to vote on the original proposal, which directed the DLNR to issue new long-term leases on state lands now occupied by the Aloha Beach Resort Kauai with a special provision giving the hotel compensation for its improvements should it be outbid for the new leases.
Dept. of Land & Natural Resources
