(BIVN) – Over 300 acres of state-owned lands in Hilo will be transferred to the Department of Hawaiian Homelands in the coming months.
Earlier this month, the Hawaiʻi Board of Land and Natural Resources authorized the land transfer under the Act 14 requirement, which was adopted to compensate DHHL for the state’s use of DHHL trust lands between August 21, 1959, and July 1, 1988.
Of the eight parcels identified in the transfer, two are commercial-zoned lands at Operations Street near the Hilo International Airport.
The Hawaiʻi County NAS Swimming Pool Facility occupies one acre of these two parcels. DHHL will need to formalize “a mutually satisfactory agreement” with the Hawaiʻi County Department of Parks and Recreation “to ensure its continued use and management of the NAS Swimming Pool Facility.”
The other six parcels are located mauka of Komohana Street off Puainako Street, and make up the bulk of the land transfer. The roughly 322 acres will be “suited to connected residential and agricultural homestead development.”
“We have a great need for residential” leases, testified Hawaiian Home Lands chair Kali Watson during the August 14 land board meeting. “We have over 29,000 people on our wait list, the majority asking for residential homesteads. So, this goes towards that.”
“I’ve been tasked with the governor to eliminate the wait list. 29,000. So, the lands we have are not going to do it. So, you’re probably going to see my face a lot in the future over the next four years asking for more lands,” Watson added.
“The BLNR did Hawaiʻi proud today by approving this significant land transfer,” said Governor Josh Green in a news release. “Getting Native Hawaiian beneficiaries onto the land has been a top priority of my administration. We awarded more than 2,500 leases in 2025 and are on track to award approximately 3,000 this year, the most in state history. This transfer builds on that progress and brings us closer to helping even more beneficiaries turn their awards into homes, working farms and thriving communities.”
“The parcels approved for transfer will provide meaningful opportunities for both homesteading and revenue generation, further supporting DHHL’s mission to provide for the economic self-sufficiency of native Hawaiians,” added DLNR Chairperson Ryan Kanakaʻole.
The State says the DHHL will need to conduct due diligence evaluations of the parcels, and hold a beneficiary consultation, before executing the conveyance.
