Report Title:

CONSIDERING KALAELOA AS ALTERNATE SITE FOR UH-WEST OAHU CAMPUS

THE SENATE

S.C.R. NO.

155

TWENTY-FIRST LEGISLATURE, 2001

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 
   


SENATE CONCURRENT

RESOLUTION

 

supporting THE GOVERNOR's plan TO CONSIDER KALAELOA AS AN ALTERNATE SITE FOR THE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII-WEST OAHU CAMPUS.

 

 

WHEREAS, Act 294, Session Laws of Hawaii 1996, specifies that the permanent campus of the University of Hawaii-West Oahu shall be developed in Kapolei, and remains as the much preferred site; and

WHEREAS, Act 294 also authorized a land exchange between the State and the Estate of James Campbell that resulted in locating the University of Hawaii-West Oahu in Kapolei, mauka of the H-1 freeway, with planning, design, and construction by specified dates; and

WHEREAS, extraordinary site preparation work, including road access, drainage, sewage, and other utility costs are estimated at $600,000,000, with initial building construction costs exceeding $200,000,000; and

WHEREAS, the original financing plan was based, in part, on the development of residential, commercial, and recreational facilities that do not now or for the foreseeable future appear to be viable; and

WHEREAS, the one thousand one hundred acres at Kalaeloa (Barbers Point) still occupied by the United States Navy has been offered for development with the intention of using the receipts to construct new, consolidated facilities in the Ford Island/Pearl Harbor area; and

WHEREAS, Kalaeloa offers many advantages as a University of Hawaii West-Oahu campus with infrastructure improvements that include existing utilities, roadways, and building facilities adjacent to the fast growing city of Kapolei, and in view of various state and county future developments of Kalaeloa; and

WHEREAS, the Barbers Point airfield and related facilities would greatly enhance the university’s aviation program and could be more readily expanded to meet the increasing unfilled future needs of the airline industry; and

WHEREAS, the proximity of the beaches and ocean would provide easy access for studies in the School of Ocean Sciences; and

WHEREAS, other recreational facilities such as a fifty meter pool and a vastly improved and beautiful golf course would also complement sporting and extracurricular activities of a university; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the Twenty-first Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2001, the House of Representatives concurring, that the Governor is strongly encouraged to pursue his plan of locating the University of Hawaii-West Oahu campus at Kalaeloa by utilizing available resources in state government including the University of Hawaii and its Board of Regents and funding as may be appropriated by the Legislature to:

(1) Conduct a study on the feasibility of Kalaeloa as the site for the University of Hawaii-West Oahu campus; and

(2) Meet with the Navy and members of Hawaii’s congressional delegation to discuss financing options including a state-federal partnership, or conveyance of the Kalaeloa property in partial payment for all the lands used by the military and other federal agencies since Hawaii's annexation in 1898;

and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Governor is requested to submit his findings and recommendations to the Legislature no later than twenty days before the convening of the 2002 Regular Session; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the Governor, the President of the University of Hawaii, and the Chairperson of the University of Hawaii Board of Regents.

 

 

 

OFFERED BY:

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