Bills would limit BLNR’s power over lease extensions

Big Island lawmakers are hopeful they can get a struggling program to revitalize parts of Hilo back on track.

After a program launched in 2018 that would allow tenants of state land in the Kanoelehua industrial area to extend their expiring leases for up to 40 years if they make certain improvements to their properties, lawmakers expected the industrial area to become sick and decrepit will recover. be rejuvenated.

However, that rejuvenation has been a long time coming.

Hilo representative Chris Todd said 12 applications were filed with the Department of Land and Natural Resources in 2021, but so far only one of them has received an extension.

Several lease applicants have been surprised by the abrupt changes in application requirements set by the Board of Land and Natural Resources.

For example, in 2019, HPM President and CEO Jason Fujimoto filed three lease extension requests for three parcels of state land, ultimately reaching a development agreement. But in 2021, the BLNR introduced new modified lease terms.

To clarify the process, Todd and other legislators have introduced a solution: a series of bills that reduce the power of the Board of Lands and Natural Resources to withhold lease extensions.

“These bills clarify our statement of intent for what we did five years ago,” Todd said. “We’re saying, ‘This is what we were trying to do.'”

House Bill 273, a new bill introduced by Todd and Representatives Mark Nakashima and Richard Onishi, notes that the 2018 bill creating the lease extension program does not explicitly include language allowing the BLNR to unilaterally modify the terms and terms of extended leases. However, the BLNR has made unilateral changes anyway, apparently “to comply with the most current lease form and board leasing practices and policies,” according to the bill.

To fix that, HB 273 directly states that the BLNR cannot unilaterally amend the terms and conditions of a public land lease.

Senate Bill 79, a parallel measure introduced by Hilo Senator Lorraine Inouye, who also co-introduced the 2018 bill, would go further and remove the BLNR from the process entirely so that only the Land Department and Natural Resources must approve it. an extension, which would have to be completed within 180 days. Nakashima introduced an identical bill in the House.

Todd said the bills are not specific to the Kanoelehua industrial area and could apply to other state land leases, such as parcels on Banyan Drive and elsewhere on the Waiakea Peninsula, where tenants are reluctant to make costly repairs on impaired properties due to uncertainty about whether they can extend their leases.

“It seems like there isn’t a complete and comprehensive plan for the area,” Todd said. “We have all these boundaries between county and state jurisdictions that don’t really benefit anyone.”

Splits like that, Todd said, are the reason all the banyan trees on Banyan Drive are now infested with invasive parasitic gall wasps, which could, if left unchecked, destroy the trees.

“The county says it’s a state problem and the state says it’s a county problem,” he said.

Todd said he hopes HB 273 can pass this year in light of the DLNR’s efforts to find a new long-term tenant for the former Country Club Condominium Hotel.

“I think this is something we should work out before we start awarding 65-year leases,” Todd said.

Email Michael Brestovansky at [email protected]