Posted on: Friday, January 14, 2005

Condo lease law closer to repeal

Advertiser Staff

The city's mandatory condominium leasehold conversion law moved a step closer to the scrap heap yesterday, without exemptions that had been sought for conversions that are pending.

The City Council's executive matters committee voted in favor of a bill that would repeal the controversial 1991 law, known as Chapter 38.

The committee includes all the council's nine members, who voted 6 to 3 in favor of the bill — a strong indication that it will be approved in a final vote later this month.

Mayor Mufi Hannemann yesterday said he remains committed to signing the measure.

Chapter 38 lets the city force landowners to sell to qualified condominium owners the fee interest in leased land under their units.

The law is popular with many people who want full ownership of the condos they live in, but is opposed by some landowners, including Kamehameha Schools and the Queen Lili'uokalani Trust, which use lease revenue to finance programs that benefit Hawaiian children.

The committee rejected Councilman Charles Djou's request that the bill be amended to allow people who have applied to convert their condo units to complete the process despite Chapter 38's demise.

Instead, the panel approved a different amendment that had not been formally drafted yet, but is to include language prepared by an attorney who's worked to repeal Chapter 38.

The changes are meant to prevent the conversion of additional units in buildings where other units had already been approved for conversion.

Voting against the new amendment, and the bill, were Djou and council members Barbara Marshall and Gary Okino.

Marshall said she was troubled by the way the changes were made, because a written draft had not been prepared in advance and available to the public.

"I'm terribly concerned about the city's liability in all this," Marshall said. "I would have voted against it, even if I was for it, because this was wrong."

Committee chairman Romy Cachola said the written amendment will be made available at least six days before the council's final vote, which could come on Jan. 26 unless a special meeting is scheduled before then.

Council chairman Donovan Dela Cruz said attorneys had assured him that yesterday's amendment and vote were legal.