The state Board of Land and Natural Resources voted Friday to authorize transferring 318.25 acres of state land in the Waiākea area of Hilo to the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, a move officials describe as part of a long effort to settle a decades-old debt owed to the Hawaiian home lands trust. The final conveyance of that parcel still needs sign-off from the Hawaiian Homes Commission before it's official.
According to the Department of Land and Natural Resources, the vote covers land in Waiākea on Hawaiʻi Island. The agency frames the transfer as a joint effort by DLNR and DHHL leadership, backed by Gov. Josh Green, to resolve claims between DHHL and the state tied to the state's use or alienation of Hawaiian home lands between Aug. 21, 1959 and July 1, 1988. As Maui Now reports, the Hawaiian Homes Commission, a nine-member body, must still approve conveyance of this final parcel.
Once that approval happens, the total acreage conveyed would actually exceed the outstanding balance owed to DHHL, per the same report. Maui Now notes the final parcel conveyance would constitute full and final satisfaction of the land transfer authorized by BLNR back in 1994 — the same 1994 action that, according to a Hawaiʻi Department of Land and Natural Resources meeting-minutes excerpt, approved conveyance of roughly 16,518 acres to DHHL.
A Debt Rooted in a 1995 Law
The transfer is meant to fulfill Act 14, a 1995 law passed by the state Legislature intended to compensate DHHL for the state's use of Hawaiian home lands trust properties between 1959 and 1988. The law was designed to fully effectuate settlement of claims between DHHL and the state, including the transfer of specific lands to DHHL, the report notes. DLNR staff worked with DHHL this year to identify which lands could be conveyed in fulfillment of that law.
Gov. Josh Green said the board's decision marks an important step toward honoring the state's commitments to Native Hawaiian beneficiaries, the same report states. The transfer of the lands, officials say, will provide opportunities for Native Hawaiian families to establish homes and communities while preserving cultural heritage for future generations.
Building on an August Authorization
The November vote follows an earlier BLNR authorization in August, when the board approved conveyance of eight parcels covering more than 300 acres in Waiākea, Hilo to DHHL — two of them commercially zoned with potential for industrial or commercial development meant to generate revenue, and the remaining six in Hilo's town core considered suitable for connected residential and agricultural homestead development, according to the earlier Maui Now account. That August approval is described in the available reporting as covering approximately 334 acres, a figure that doesn't line up cleanly with the 318.25 acres cited for November's action; the available reporting doesn't explain the discrepancy, so both figures are noted here rather than reconciled.
Per the same Maui Now reporting, the Aug. 14 approval reduced the outstanding balance owed to DHHL from roughly 619.25 acres down to 285.25 acres, and the Waiākea land covered by Friday's vote would add 33 additional acres toward closing that gap. Ryan Kanakaʻole said the land transfer had been a long time coming, adding that DLNR is committed to working with DHHL to complete the matter, per Maui Now. The state has had an obligation to fulfill its commitment to DHHL for more than 30 years, according to the same account — a timeline that underscores just how long Hilo's homestead waitlist has been waiting on this land to change hands.
