The Office of Hawaiian Affairs has dismissed a buyout proposal from a legislative leader to make permanent an existing residential development ban on land the agency owns in Kakaako Makai.
There's an offer on the table for the Office of Hawaiian Affairs trustees to bring resolution to the dilemma of whether to allow residential development makai of Ala Moana Boulevard, an area known as Kakaʻako Makai. The proposal would pay OHA $100 million for an easement over their nine parcels of land to restrict residential development and preserve the area's open spaces.
OHA has unsuccessfully tried four times over the past decade to develop high-rises on some of its commercially-zoned parcels, which would require lawmakers to repeal a 2006 law banning housing
The leader of the state House of Representatives wants to make a deal with the Office of Hawaiian Affairs to keep housing from ever being developed on land the agency owns in Kakaako mainly in exchange for $165 million.