In a symbolic commitment, the state House and Senate yesterday voted to approve a bill that would authorize the state to acquire the Turtle Bay Resort on the North Shore.

The votes came amid a crush of action on the final day of this year's legislative session. Lawmakers also approved plans to acquire agricultural land owned by the Galbraith Estate in Central O'ahu, create incentives to protect important agricultural land and require solar water heaters in new homes starting in 2010.

But it was the Turtle Bay bill that drew much of the late attention. The Lingle administration is in negotiations with private investors regarding the 880-acre resort and had asked lawmakers to pass the bill to show they are behind the idea. The administration wants private investors to take over the hotel, golf courses and other developed portions of the resort so the state can acquire and preserve undeveloped Kawela Bay and Kahuku Point.

Several lawmakers, particularly in the Senate, had serious reservations about making a commitment without more detail but reluctantly agreed to support the bill. Gov. Linda Lingle has said she would likely ask lawmakers to return in special session to consider a potential deal.

State Sen. Clayton Hee, D-23rd (Kane'ohe, Kahuku), described the bill as imperfect but a strong signal that the state would preserve a "bit of old Hawai'i."

"We have seen in our own lifetime a massive, exponential development and pouring of concrete that no one could have imagined when we were younger," Hee said.

Linda Smith, Lingle's senior policy adviser, said the administration was pleased.

"The fact that they supported the bill really shows that the House and Senate and the administration are all working together on this Turtle Bay effort," she said. "I think it demonstrates to both the sellers and prospective buyers that the state is in harmony on trying to move this project forward."

SOME ARE CRITICAL

Several lawmakers said the bill, which authorizes up to $250,000 toward the negotiations but does not commit any state financing of the purchase, is flawed and premature. Language in the bill that would allow the state to use eminent domain to acquire the resort without the approval of the Legislature troubled many lawmakers.

"I think this is very, very premature," said state Sen. Russell Kokubun, D-2nd (S. Hilo, Puna, Ka'u).

State Sen. Sam Slom, R-8th (Kahala, Hawai'i Kai), called it a "pig in a poke." He said the state should not be intervening in private-sector business decisions and characterized the negotiations so far as secretive. Although Lingle has said no state money would be involved, he predicted that taxpayers would have to pay if the state moved forward with a purchase.

"We really don't know what's behind the taking of Turtle Bay," Slom said.

But state Senate Minority Leader Fred Hemmings, R-25th (Kailua, Waimanalo, Hawai'i Kai), said it was moments like yesterday that made him proud of the Senate's ability to work together. He noted that Hee had often been an adversary of Senate Republicans and the Lingle administration.

"It's when we shine the most," Hemmings said.

The Senate narrowly passed the bill 14 to 11. The House voted 37 to 10, with four excused.

'A HAMMER'

State Rep. Blake Oshiro, D-33rd ('Aiea, Halawa Valley, 'Aiea Heights), said he agreed with some of the reservations of other lawmakers, but added, "I think at the end of the day what we have to ask ourselves — and what I've always been told — is that if you don't try and you don't ask, then the answer will always be no."

Several members expressed concerns about the use of eminent domain, but Oshiro said it is a necessary bargaining tool and a last resort.

"I do think that it's been put in there as a hammer to let Oaktree know, to let Kuilima Resort developers know that we are serious, that we want to acquire this property," Oshiro said. "Without this language, I think this bill would lack the hammer that it needs to make it truly meaningful."

Oaktree Capital Management is the Los Angeles private equity firm that owns the resort, and Kuilima Resort Co. is the resort's developer.

State Rep. Glenn Wakai, D-31st (Moanalua Valley, Moanalua, Salt Lake), opposed the bill. "With Hawai'i's economic vitality in question, how in the world can we go down the road of spending hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer money for the purchase of Turtle Bay?" he asked. "Sure, it certainly would be nice to have, but it would be nice to have school campuses that weren't falling apart, it would be nice to have harbors that didn't crumble into the ocean. It would be nice if we had more money to address the homeless problem in Hawai'i."

The Turtle Bay votes occurred as lawmakers finished their work for the year, approving dozens of bills that now go to Lingle for her signature or veto.

CONTENTIOUS ISSUES

Among the more controversial measures were bills approving the purchase of Galbraith Estate land, protecting other important agricultural land, and requiring homebuilders to install solar water heaters in new homes starting in 2010.

Lawmakers have the option of returning this summer for a veto override session, but majority Democrats have recently frowned on override sessions in election years unless there is significant public pressure.

Some lawmakers had worried that the important agricultural land bill and the solar bill might be in trouble because they had been linked in conference committee negotiations last week. But both bills passed, although the vote was close in the Senate on the agricultural bill.

State Senate Majority Leader Gary Hooser, D-7th (Kaua'i, Ni'ihau), said the solar mandate is an achievement that could help consumers save on their utility bills and reduce the state's reliance on fossil fuels.

PROTECTING AG

State Sen. Jill Tokuda, D-24th (Kailua, Kane'ohe), said the agricultural bill would provide incentives for landowners and farmers to get the "three critical components needed to sustain and grow our state's agricultural industry: access to land, water and capital.

"Without all three, we will not be able to ensure that active agricultural operations can be maintained on our agricultural lands."

But some environmentalists, including the Sierra Club Hawai'i chapter, had opposed the bill because it could make it easier for large landowners to reclassify a portion of their land from agricultural to rural, urban or conservation, leading to more golf courses or luxury home projects.

"That's what's driving this entire bill, in my opinion," Kokubun said.

In the House, state Rep. Colleen Meyer, R-47th (La'ie, Hau'ula, Punalu'u), had strong reservations about the Galbraith purchase. Noting that other lawmakers had concerns about passing the Turtle Bay bill, which gave the governor $250,000 to try to acquire the Kahuku property, Meyer said the appropriation for the Galbraith Estate acquisition was much more significant at $13 million.

"Here we have a bill that has a lot of things up in the air, and we've appropriated $13 million and we could have found a lot of other uses for that," she said.

State Rep. Hermina Morita, D-14th (Hanalei, Anahola, Kapa'a), praised the potential long-term savings of the solar bill.

"If the expense of a solar water heater is included in the mortgage of a new home, given the high and unpredictable cost of oil, the savings from the lowered electricity costs will exceed the additional monthly payments for the solar water heating system," she said.

Reach Derrick DePledge at ddepledge@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8070. Reach Treena Shapiro at tshapiro@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8014.