KAHEA: The Hawaiian-Environmental Alliance has issued a press release saying that the new development arm of the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources, “should be repealed because it promotes the sale and improper use of public lands, including ceded lands.”

Issued by Jon Osorio, a KAHEA board member and well-known UH professor of Hawaiian Studies, the statement continues:

It improperly exempts the state from many of the important laws that are meant to be a way for the state to carry out its public trust duty to protect our precious resources.  We believe there are no rules that can “fix” the PLDC to restore protections to our public trust resources and ceded lands.  The PLDC simply must be repealed. 

The PLDC is travelling across our islands this week and next to take testimony on its administrative rules.  Stand up and be heard.  Let the PLDC know that we the public want no part of it – the PLDC must be repealed.

Choon James, a real estate broker and member of the Ko’olauloa Sustainable Communities Committee and Save Oahu Farmlands Coalition, is also calling for the repeal of the PLDC in a community voices piece in Civil Beat today.