HONOLULU (AP) — The U.S. military and Hawaii officials said Friday said the Air Force has returned 363 acres (147 hectares) it leased on Molokai Island to the Department of Hawaiian Homelands, opening the likelihood Native Hawaiians could move onto the land.
The department administers lands under a century-old U.S. law that permits Native Hawaiians with at the very least 50% Hawaiian blood quantum to use for a 99-year lease for $1 a yr.
But Hawaii has been slow to award leases to Native Hawaiians. An estimated 28,000 persons are on the waitlist for lots, a few of whom have been waiting for a long time. The necessity for lots has grown increasingly acute as rising real estate prices have made it harder to many in Hawaii to purchase homes.
The Hawaiian Homes Commission Act of 1920 law was created to spice up economic self-sufficiency amongst Hawaiians.
State Sen. Lynn DeCoite said at a joint news conference hosted by Gov. Josh Green that the land the military is returning is an ideal area for grazing cattle. DeCoite is a Democrat who represents Molokai, a mostly rural island.
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Ikaika Anderson, the chairperson of the Hawaiian Homes Commission, said most individuals on the waitlist for leases on islands aside from Oahu want agricultural or pastoral leases and never residential ones, so there ought to be demand to make use of it for pasture.
Anderson plans to go to the property with DeCoite on Saturday.
Air Force Col. Michal Holliday said the U.S. government has used the Molokai parcel because the Federal Aviation Administration leased it in Nineteen Sixties. It was initially used to support telecommunications for the Apollo program.
The Air Force took over the lease in 1981 and used the land as a high frequency receiver for radio communications. In 2007, the Air Force determined it didn’t need the land anymore, and commenced preparing to scrub it up and return it. The lease expired on Dec. 31.
U.S. Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Mark Hashimoto, mobilization assistant to the commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, said the military has accomplished “an exhaustive and comprehensive clean up” approved by the state Department of Health and the state Department of Hawaiian Homelands.
When asked when Native Hawaiians would have the option to maneuver onto the land, Anderson said his department first must seek the advice of those eligible to use for leases because they know best what the lands might be used for.
“It will be premature for the Hawaiian Homes Commission to do anything prior to consulting with our beneficiaries on Molokai and the people they elected to represent them,” Anderson said.
Green said he was in search of other lands the military could return to Hawaii.
“We’re reaching out continuously to to our military ohana within the islands to search out out ways in which we will higher use land because we would like to construct housing and supply agricultural opportunities,” Green said, while using the Hawaiian word for family.
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