Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 6, Number 12, 1 Kekemapa 1989 — Review of historic sites law is funded [ARTICLE]

Review of historic sites law is funded

The OHA Historic Preservation Task Force received $25,000 in matching state funds and $25,000 from the OHA trust funds for a two-year study on historic preservation. The task force will be working with the state division of historic sites to review and identify weaknesses in existing historic preservation laws and to make recommendations to the state legislature to review and strengthen them. An interim report is due in December and the final report in December 1990. From the state general funds, the OHA Division of Land and Natural Resources received $158,600 for Operation Ka Po'e, the plebiscite on the single definition whieh was announced in November and

will be completed in January. Matching funds were obtained for a $380,000 grant for the Native Hawaiian Land Tltle Project whieh is a contract with the Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation to provide representation to Hawaiian famiHes and individuals to protect fee simple ownership whieh is threatened by quiet title or adverse possession claims. A two-year $60,000 matching appropriation, from OHA trust funds and the state's general fund, was obtained for the Judicial Relief Act (also known as the Native Hawanan Right To Sue) to identify claims by individual beneficiaries and by OHA so appropriate suits ean be brought to insure the integrity of the OHA trust and the Hawaiian Home Lands Trust. Projects recommended to the board of trustees by the OHA Task Force on Historic Preservation, through the OHA Division of Land and Natural Resources, were approved by the operations and

development committee and have been reported to the board of trustees for action. The board met Nov. 30 after press deadline. The committee accepted a recommendation by the Historic Preservation Task Force to approve $1,500 for co-sponsorship of the Hawaiian Burials Seminar at the state capitol. The Historic Preservation Task Force also urged intervention before the Maui Planning Commission conceming the cultural significance of Pu'u 'Anoano where a golf course is proposed whieh threatens an ancient kahuna training area. The task force also met with the planning department and Maui County Council and the Honolulu City Council in October, and with the Kaua'i historic preservation commission and the Big Island county eouneil and planning department in November to assess the weaknesses of current historic preservation ordinances and to make recommendations for strengthening them.