The state Office of Hawaiian Affairs has rekindled an effort to undo a ban on residential use of land it owns in Kakaako, but with a new twist aimed at swaying past opponents and a majority of state lawmakers.

OHA, a state agency
created to benefit Native Hawaiians, has drafted a bill that proposes allowing some residential use in Kakaako, makai of Ala Moana Boulevard, with a caveat that more than 50% of all resulting homes be reserved for Hawaii resident households that don’t earn over 140% of Oahu’s median
income.

Furthermore, buyers of the reserved homes would have to be owner-occupants, and a preference would be given to those who work within 5 miles of the area in “essential” fields that include education, health care, law enforcement, hospitality and construction.

Less than half of what could be 1,000 to 2,000 homes on much of the
31 acres OHA owns in what is known as Kakaako Makai would be market-priced housing, according to the plan.

Proceeds from market-­priced home sales would help the agency pay for other components of its development plan in the area, including a Hawaiian cultural center and public waterfront promenade along the Ewa edge of Kewalo
Basin Small Boat Harbor.

Kai Kahele, a former state and federal lawmaker who won a seat on OHA’s board of trustees in Hawaii’s Aug. 10 primary election and then became board chair, briefed members of a state House of Representatives committee Monday on the agency’s new Kakaako Makai plan.

Kahele framed the new push, which follows more than a decade of unsuccessful OHA attempts to permit residential use in Kakaako Makai, as helping the state end a chronic affordable-­housing shortage.

“OHA wants to be at the table to contribute to (solving) a crisis in this state, which is the lack of workforce housing, a lack of affordable housing,” Kahele told the House Finance Committee. “We feel that it is a strong message that the state and OHA can send together that we want to create workforce housing in the urban core that is affordable to local families that are part of the state’s essential workforce that we need to keep here.”

The draft bill also states that even the proposed market-rate homes would be only for owner-occupants.

“We’re not creating workforce housing, or housing period, for out-of-state
investors,” Kahele said.

OHA officials plan to pre­sent the new Kakaako Makai plan at a community meeting scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m. today at the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Ho‘okupu Center next to
Kewalo Basin Park.

Developing parts of the man-made peninsula comprising Kakaako Makai has been under the governance of the Hawaii Community Development Authority, a state agency, for more than four decades.

During much of this time, housing had been a permitted use on portions of the roughly 200-acre peninsula, which was once a city dump and later covered by a
waterfront park and commercial uses including warehouses, base yards, ship repair facilities, office buildings, a children’s museum and the University of Hawaii medical school.

The Legislature in 2006 passed a law to prohibit residential use in the area to block a private project on public land solicited by HCDA aimed at enlivening use of the area.

That project, by Honolulu-­based Alexander &Baldwin Inc., included three condominium towers clustered on one inland lot, a hula amphitheater, restaurants, stores, a farmers market, a public waterfront promenade and a pedestrian bridge spanning the Kewalo Basin harbor channel.

Community activists, including residents in mauka Kakaako condo towers, surfers and park users participating in grassroots organizations Save Our Kakaako and Friends of Kewalos, lobbied lawmakers for a residential development ban.

A&B withdrew its plan after a near-unanimous final legislative vote, and HCDA urged then-Gov. Linda Lingle, a Republican, to veto the bill so as not to restrict future redevelopment potential. Lingle did not issue a veto, and the ban became law without her signature.

Six years later, in 2012, OHA agreed to a state offer approved by the Legislature to take ownership of 31 acres of Kakaako Makai land in lieu of $200 million to partially settle claims over unpaid revenue generated from former Hawaiian crown lands,
referred to as ceded land.

OHA accepted the land with the residential use prohibition but also pushed at the time to lift the ban so it could maximize future development revenue used to help support programs for agency beneficiaries.

While the settlement was pending in 2012, the Senate passed a bill to allow residential development on two parcels intended for OHA, but the measure died in the House.

Later, OHA leaders publicly claimed that the agency was pressured to rush the settlement and that the
$200 million appraised value for the land was overblown by more than double.

Yet several proposed bills since 2012 to allow residential development on at least some of the nine Kakaako Makai parcels owned by OHA have failed at the Legislature despite strong support in the Senate.

Much of this legislation died under the direction or heavy influence of longtime House member Scott Saiki, who represented Kakaako and had been House majority leader and then House speaker during OHA’s earlier bids to allow residential use in Kakaako Makai.

Saiki lost his seat in the Aug. 10 primary election to former state Board of Education member Kim Coco
Iwamoto, and Rep. Nadine Nakamura (D, Hanalei-­Princeville-Kapaa) became the new speaker of the House.

Now OHA is floating a new strategy for consideration by revamped House leadership and the rest of the
Legislature.

“We think we have a better plan this time,” Kahele said at the House Finance Committee briefing.

Under the draft legislation, which is still subject to an OHA board vote to make it part of a bill package the agency submits to the Legislature, residential use is proposed for five of OHA’s nine parcels along with four blocks owned by Kameha­meha Schools.

Two of the OHA parcels and four Kamehameha Schools parcels fronting Ala Moana Boulevard are proposed for 400-foot building height limits, up from HCDA’s existing 200-foot limit.

Two other OHA parcels fronting Kewalo Harbor, including the former home of Fisherman’s Wharf restaurant, are proposed for residential use under an existing 65-foot height limit.

The fifth OHA parcel, a lot shaped like a grand piano one block inland from the harbor front where OHA contemplates developing a hotel, is proposed for residential use under an existing 200-foot height limit.

Ron Iwami, founder of the Friends of Kewalos nonprofit that has opposed residential use in Kakaako Makai for two decades, said he and other board members want to hear more details about OHA’s new plan before
taking a position on it.

“We’re going to listen and learn,” he said. “We’re being open-minded.”

Iwami praised Kahele for reaching out to the nonprofit to personally explain OHA’s new plan, but wants to hear more because some things in the draft bill appear vague. Iwami also expressed concern for relatively high income limits and prices for workforce housing units.

The income limit, which at 140% of the median is the top end for affordable housing under state regulations, equates to about $137,000 for a single person, $156,000 for a couple and $194,000 for a family of four. Maximum home sale prices tied to such incomes could range from roughly $500,000 to $720,000 under state guidelines and current interest rates.

Kahele told the House Finance Committee that he envisions homes aimed at households earning 80% to 120% of the median income instead of 140%.

“That is your typical (Department of Education) teacher married to a fireman, and they have a child or two,” he said. “That’s the model we’re looking at.”

The Legislature’s 2025 session is scheduled to
begin Jan. 15.

HONOLULU (AP) — Hawaii authorities on Tuesday asked lawmakers for $5.2 million to hire eight people and expand a forensic lab to crack down on the persistent rampant smuggling of illegal fireworks like those that killed four people and injured about 20 more at a Honolulu home on New Year’s Eve.

Jordan Lowe, the director of the state Department of Law Enforcement, outlined the funding request during hearings before House and Senate committees at the state Legislature. Last week’s deadly explosion highlighted the immense risks posed by illegal fireworks in Hawaii and put a spotlight on the department’s efforts to address contraband explosives.

Hawaii lawmakers will consider budget requests during their next legislative session due to begin on Jan. 15.

The state already has an Illegal Fireworks Task Force that the department formed in 2023 together with other state, city and federal agencies. So far it has seized 227,000 pounds (103,000 kilograms) of fireworks and two people have pleaded no contest to felony indictments resulting from its work.

Lowe told lawmakers his department’s contribution to the task force consists of two officers whose main job is handling narcotics enforcement. Whenever an operation is planned, the task force must pull personnel from the Honolulu Police Department, attorney general’s office and other agencies.

“The problem with that is it’s really not sustainable,” Lowe told the House Finance Committee.

He explained how after a seizure of 30,000 pounds (13,600 kilograms) of fireworks, for example, officers must unload a shipping container holding the contraband, prepare an inventory list, reload the explosives into a container and then transport it to storage. Only then do they track down who bought and sold the shipment and determine whether they are able to prosecute the case.

The eight positions requested for the proposed Explosives Enforcement Section include six investigators, one of whom will be an administrator, and two clerks.

About $2 million of the initial startup cost would be for the laboratory, where investigators can analyze seized explosives. Currently, Honolulu police have the only forensics lab in Hawaii certified to analyze fireworks composition and Lowe said it is already overwhelmed.

The department will need to lease space, obtain equipment and hire a criminalist or someone to analyze evidence for the lab, Lowe said. Investigators will need safety equipment and vehicles. The department will need storage space.

The department also wants to work with county fire departments to set up a unified fireworks permitting system which would help investigators with enforcement.

Lowe acknowledged that the pace of fireworks seizures has dropped sharply over the past year. The task force captured 187,000 pounds (85,000 kilograms) from early December 2023 through early January 2024 but then only 40,000 pounds (18,100 kilograms) the rest of last year. Sen. Donovan Dela Cruz asked if the task force was getting fewer tips from people working at the ports due to threats and whether authorities would need a new source of information. Lowe replied that was correct.

An X-ray or particle scanner would allow the task force to identify more fireworks entering Hawaii but such large-scale canners cost millions, Lowe said.

On Saturday, the department plans to sponsor an amnesty event at Aloha Stadium at which it will allow people to drop off illegal fireworks without the threat of punishment. It said the event offers a way to dispose of fireworks in a safe manner.

“Our first responders have witnessed the tragic consequences of illegal fireworks use,” said Honolulu Fire Chief Sheldon Hao said in a news release. “To ensure public safety, we can no longer ignore or diminish the serious and deadly dangers associated with illegal fireworks.”

Separately, the Honolulu medical examiner said the fourth person killed in the New Year’s explosion was Carmelita Beningno, age 61.

Audrey Mcavoy, The Associated Press

A three-year-old boy on Monday became the fourth person to die of injuries stemming from a massive explosion of fireworks a Honolulu home on New Year’s Eve, police said. The blast also killed three women and injured more than 20 people, many of whom have burns over most of their bodies.