PLDC-Killing Bill Scheduled for Hearing Next Week

A House bill that would dissolve the controversial Public Land Development Corp. will have its first hearing in the Senate next week.

House Bill 1133 received unanimous approval on its third and final reading in the House of Representatives on Feb. 14.

It is scheduled for a hearing before the Senate Committee on Water and Land at 1:20 p.m. on Tuesday, March 19.

A similar Senate bill, which was approved by all 25 members of the Senate before being transmitted to the House on Feb. 19, has been referred to two House committees.

However, those committees, Finance and Water and Land, have not yet scheduled Senate Bill 707 for a hearing.

Both measures would repeal Act 55, the 2011 law that created the PLDC.

The agency was designed to establish public-private partnerships that would generate revenues through the development of state properties.

But before the PLDC could complete its administrative rules it was met by overwhelming public opposition, much of which was prompted by the agency’s authority to bypass some state land-use laws and also county zoning and subdivision requirements.

The primary difference between the bills is that the Senate’s version would retain two members of the PLDC’s existing staff, Executive Director Lloyd Haraguchi and the agency’s planner, under the Department of Land and Natural Resources.