State lawmakers are taking another swing at one of Hilo’s most stubborn trouble spots, moving a package of bills this week aimed at finally reviving the battered Banyan Drive corridor. The measures would set up a community development framework under the Hawai‘i Community Development Authority, free up planning money, and give the state tools to acquire key parcels such as the Grand Naniloa golf course.
House Bill Clears First Hurdle
The House Water and Land Committee voted 7–1 to advance House Bill 2616, an amended proposal that would establish the Waiākea Community Development District under HCDA and create a special fund for redevelopment. The committee report recommends sending the bill to the House Finance Committee and notes that the HD1 version requests funding for an environmental assessment and staffing while listing an effective date of July 1, 3000, as shown on LegiScan.
Planning And Demolition Already Underway
The legislative push lines up with technical work already getting started on the ground. Gov. Josh Green has released seed money for a feasibility and master planning study, and contractors have been remediating and wrapping up demolition at the former Uncle Billy’s hotel site. Honolulu Civil Beat detailed the planning funds and the peninsula’s long decline, while local coverage tracked the final phase of demolition as part of the broader site cleanup.
Senate Floats Its Own Fix For Banyan Drive
On the other side of the Capitol, senators have filed companion measures that would give the state more direct tools to reshape the peninsula, including a proposal to create a Banyan Drive development district and additional bills aimed squarely at problem leaseholds. As reported by the Star-Advertiser, lawmakers have been amending and shuffling provisions among the various measures as committees wrestle with costs and competing ideas about how the district should be governed.
Naniloa Acquisition And The Price Question
One Senate bill would authorize the Department of Land and Natural Resources to acquire the leasehold interest for the Grand Naniloa Golf Course and includes an appropriation request, according to the text and summary on LegiScan. Other bills focus on the condemned Country Club apartment building on Banyan Drive, with hearings in the Senate Water and Land Committee scheduled on measures that would set aside money for demolition and cleanup.
Culture, Control And Local Pushback
Testimony so far has made it clear that questions of who gets to decide Banyan Drive’s future are just as hot as the line items in the budget. Lineal descendants and cultural practitioners are pushing for voting seats on any redevelopment board, while some officials have suggested limiting them to advisory roles instead. At the same time, negotiations continue with Grand Naniloa leaseholders, who have been reluctant to give up the golf course parcel, a stalemate that could shape how much of the peninsula is preserved versus redeveloped, according to reporting by Prism News.
The next steps may be procedural, but they are hardly minor: any bills that clear their subject-matter committees still have to survive scrutiny in the finance and ways and means panels before money for demolition or land acquisition can actually flow. Lawmakers and county leaders say the goal is to move away from piecemeal fixes and toward a coordinated plan that accounts for sea level rise and local culture. For now, though, the timelines and dollar figures are still very much in flux as hearings continue.
