§174-17  Formation of a project on
initiative of board; notice and hearing; protests.  The board of land and
natural resources may organize projects upon its own initiative.  In this
event, it shall fix a date for public hearing upon the proposed project, which
date shall not be less than sixty days after the first public notice thereof in
the county in which the project is proposed.  The notice shall be given once in
each of four successive weeks, and shall include notice of the area to be
included in and general details of the proposed project, stating the time and
place of the public hearing.  If the owners of fifty-five per cent of the
acreage of lands proposed to be organized into a project at the hearing or
prior thereto shall file written protest against the proposed project, the
project shall not be made and proceedings shall not be renewed within twelve
months from the date of closing the public hearing, unless each and every owner
protesting withdraws each and every owner's protest; provided that any lessee
of any lands included within the proposed project, who, by the express terms of
the lessee's lease must pay the assessment contemplated hereunder shall be
subrogated to all the rights of the owner to protest by filing at the hearing
or prior thereto written protest against the proposed project, the written
protest to be accompanied by a certified copy of the lease; provided further
that any lessor, at any time before the closing of the public hearing, may void
the protest of the lessor's lessee on consideration of the filing with the
board a duly acknowledged waiver of the provision in the lease which requires
the lessee to pay the assessment, and a written undertaking of the lessor to
pay the assessment to be made on account of the proposed project; and further
provided that a project may be instituted without further public notice for a
smaller acreage within the acreage described in the original public notice in
the event the board determines the smaller project to be economically feasible,
if written protests by the owners, or lessees subrogated to the right to
protest, of fifty-five per cent of the smaller acreage shall not be filed.  The
department shall assure that adequate water is reserved for future development
and use on Hawaiian home lands that could be served by the proposed water
project. [L 1961, c 166, pt of §3; Supp, §86-16; HRS §174-17; gen ch 1985; am L
1987, c 306, §10; am L 1991, c 325, §5; am L 1998, c 2, §41]



 



Law Journals and Reviews



 



  Native Hawaiian Homestead Water Reservation Rights: 
Providing Good Living Conditions for Native Hawaiian Homesteaders.  25 UH L.
Rev. 85.