Mosquito Case: Environmental Court hearings on Tina Lia’s and Hawaiʻi Unites’s motion for a preliminary injunction to halt a mosquito-suppression project in East Maui are on hold due to the fires that devastated Maui last month.
An initial hearing was held on July 21. Two more were scheduled for August 15 and 21. However, given the unknown impacts of the fires, the plaintiffs, was well as the state Board of Land and Natural Resources and Department of Land and Natural Resources (the defendants), and defendant-intervenor American Bird Conservancy, agreed to continue the hearings to some time after October 11.
Also, on August 10, Environmental Court Judge John Tonaki granted the state’s June 26 motion to dismiss Count II of the complaint, which claimed that the Land Board had improperly approved an environmental assessment for the mosquito suppression project last March after Lia and Hawaiʻi Unites requested a contested case hearing. That contested case request was denied.
The state deputy attorneys general argued to the court that the Hawaiʻi Environmental Policy Act does not allow for contested case hearings on the acceptance of an EA, which is simply a review of a project’s effects. It neither permits any action nor affects property interests, they noted.
Proclamation Pushback: Just a little over a month after Governor Josh Green issued his July 17 emergency proclamation to facilitate the building of affordable housing, it’s being challenged by several Hawaiʻi citizens in 2nd Circuit Court.
The proclamation calls for the suspension or modification of several state and county laws, including those regarding environmental reviews and historic preservation.
On August 28, a day before the second meeting of the Build Beyond Barriers Working Group that was established by the proclamation, Judge Peter Cahill signed a writ of quo warranto ordering lead housing officer Nani Medeiros and the working group to appear in court on January 19 to answer a petition filed by Leonoard “Junya” Nakoa III, Daniel Palakiko, Tom Coffman, Llewelyn Kaohelauli’i, Val Turalde, Elizabeth Okinaka, Tom Keali’i Kanahele, Ellen Ebata, Rupert Rowe, and Jeffrey Lindner challenging the proclamation’s legality.
A press release by Lance Collins, one of the attorneys representing the petitioners, states, “The petitioning hui of local residents are very concerned by the governor’s use of emergency powers to legislate radical policy changes into law affecting everything from protection of iwi kūpuna and prevailing wages to ensuring payment of school impact fees.”
Under the proclamation, the working group and Medeiros would determine when those laws apply to a development project.
The petitioners argue that the housing shortage does not constitute an emergency under state law, and even if it were, the “alternative processes” provided for in the proclamation exceed what the law and the state constitution allow.
“Protections put in place for our iwi kupuna over the last thirty years is not a reason why Hawai’i has had a shortage of affordable housing for the last hundred,” Nakoa stated in the press release.
“The proclamation usurps all government power into the hands of one unelected former lobbyist. It is a direct threat to our democracy,” Coffman added.
Before joining the Green administration, Medeiros was a registered lobbyist for Housing Providers of HI, Inc. DBA HomeAid Hawaiʻi.
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