Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 39, Number 8, 1 August 2022 — Gary Cordery [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Gary Cordery

1 1 We have limited resources of land, water and energy but a growing demand via global exposure and financial wealth. Tbe answers are found in understanding the implementation of loeal policy that either creates opportunities or restrains them. Here is a bullet point perspective of areas whieh should participate in resolving the cost of housing: 1) The state should make available more land for low and medium density housing; 2) State land lease policy should be redirected to individual ownership, creating legacy properties; 3) Though a C&C issue, planning, permitting and zoning should embrace the policies of numerous other states streamlining the entire system. 1his will reduce cost, accelerate the availability of units and reduce the admin. cost ...V v,v „vvvvv, V . . . „wvvvvvv. V

of the government oversight, attracting new private investment rather than government low ineome housing projects with tax credit incentives; 4) Hawaiian Homes should move to private ownership for the Hawaiian people, thus creating a wealth-building legacy system. 5) Create a conversation and agreement with humility for the large financial stakeholders to unite and underwrite the development of the Hawaiian Homelands. DLNR shall support this with land policy and water rights. 6) Bring scalable desalinization to O'ahu, Maui, Moloka'i providing necessary water resources to sustain development and agriculture. 2 | A robust agriculture industry is critical for Hawai'i's food supply. We cannot depend on imports for life-sustaining products. This will also stabilize the unpredictable costs of these products and its impact on our economy. Currently, we are at the mercy of supply ehain issues, international relationships, global weather, crop production, tariffs, government subsidies and other factors: 1) The state must open up available natural land resources, water and provide cost effective access to transportation; 2) The current land three-five year lease programs must change to long-term leases. No farmer will invest in their business if they do not have certainty they ean control their land. Many of these leases must be converted to private ownership, these changes would create legacy properties for generations. Also, if the lands were privately owned, the land could be used for equity to borrow capital to start or grow their business; 3) The state should provide a ferry system designed to support the loeal ag. industry and must be exempt from the Jones Act; 4) Dependable water resources and accessibility must be established through thoughtful watershed policies and new water resources mentioned above (onee operational); 5) The state should allow its educational services to contract with loeal farmers at the county level for its locally grown products; 6) We should bring high tech. industry to Hawai'i. Our geographic/time zone location is ideal for this and related industries. 3 | The state and D0E should fund new charter schools. Currently D0E only funds existing D0E schools that heeome charter schools. If D0E funded new charter start-up schools, we would see numerous new options for Hawaiian language schools: 1) The governor may have executive order authority to direct the D0E to implement the laws currently in plaee. It is the governor's responsibility to uphold and enforce law through the attorney general's office. 2) Student funding should follow the student. Also, school vouchers should be made available to parents who are unahle to plaee their students in appropriate schools. ■ 1. ^ 3. 2. ^ 4.