The Committee on Zoning and Planning is reconvening at 8 11 49 a.m.

Moving to agenda item number five informational briefing update on the city's clean water and natural lands fund program.

Joining us in the council chamber will be first Catherine Tatchner, Deputy Director of Housing and Land Management, and Olu Campbell, President Chief Executive Officer for the Hawaii Land Trust.

For your information, their presentations are available online as Departmental Communication 648 2025 and Miscellaneous Communication 435 2025, respectively.

And Deputy Director, if you don't mind, I'd um I'd also like for you to introduce your team because the whole idea of holding this hearing is both for city council members to know more about this undervalued and important program, but also for us to help in the dissemination of the program to our constituents so that they could apply for this important program.

Thank you.

All right.

Alohay is zoning chair Kia Aina and other members of the Honolulu City Council's uh Honolulu Honolulu City Council's Committee on Zoning and Planning.

My name is Kat Tashner, and I'm the deputy director for the Department of Housing and Land Management.

And I'm pleased to be here today to talk about one of the best parts of my job.

Um there is a presentation roadmap over of what we'd like to cover today, and I believe that's in the materials that was handed out.

But thank you, Councilmember Kia Aina.

I would also like to introduce our team.

I'm joined here today by Tam and Bree, our Clean Water and Natural Lands Program Managers.

They are uh incredibly dedicated to the work, and I'm I'm we're so pleased to have them today.

Tam has a super strong legal and transactional background, so she helps us with the uh with the structuring and completing the transactions, and Bree has a master's in natural resource and environmental management, and so she assists with the stewardship and monitoring of the previously acquired parcels.

Um these two women are the beating heart of the clean water and natural lands program, and I'm really happy you get a chance to meet them.

So I will begin with a brief overview of the Clean Water and Natural Lands Fund, its history.

Um it was created by the voters through a charter amendment in 2006, and the program was officially started in 2007.

Uh the first land acquisition made using the Clean Water and Natural Lands Fund was in 2010.

And then in 2016, the Honolulu voters approved an amendment to establish a an advisory commission.

In 2022, the voters uh further amended the Clean Water and Natural Lands Fund, this time to create a stewardship fund for lands that were previously acquired using clean water and natural lands monies.

This these monies could go towards the operation and land management of those lands.

In 2023, the Clean Water Natural Lands Fund and the Advisory Commission were administratively transferred over to DLM.

And earlier this year, we stood up the conservation office so that the Clean Water Natural Lands Program will have a permanent home within the city.

The Clean Water and Natural Lands Fund can be used for the purposes identified in section 9-204 of the city charter.

We've put it up on the slide there, but it's really broad.

It includes ag.

It includes open space, it includes cultural and historical sites, um, watershed land, coastal areas.

So it really really is a broad fund.

And the charter also establishes a process for which applications and proposals for the use of the fund are uh are received.

The process begins with the landowner or the applicant submitting an application to the Department of Land uh Management, actually the Department of Housing and Land Management.

We go through it with them, we do an initial review, we qualify it, and thereafter it goes to the advisory commission for evaluation.

Um the advisory commission will make a recommendation to the Honolulu City Council for funding, and after funding approval, then it moves into negotiation and closing.

This is where we do a lot of our due diligence.

We work with the landowner, we work with the applicant to make sure how do we preserve these conservation values in perpetuity.

This negotiation and closing phase can be extremely lengthy.

In some cases, uh, you'll see on a on a later slide.

I think there was 10 years.

These are forever transactions, and we want to make sure that we're structuring them appropriately, and so that this period can take some time.

And eventually, once we close, then we move on to the next chapter of the um of the property, which is the perpetual stewardship of the land.

The charter establishes a seven-member volunteer advisory commission with three appointed by mayor, three appointed by the Honolulu City Council, and one appointed by the uh majority vote of the six appointed members.

And the commission members come from a variety of conservation, science, education, policy, and cultural backgrounds, and I've listed the seven current uh members on the slide.

So that's the program.

That's how we're established by charter.

Now I'd like to move into the portfolio of assets.

And this map indicates the in green, the parcels that have been acquired using clean water and natural lands funds.

Uh, these are the ones that are now in perpetual stewardship.

The items in blue are the ones that we are currently in due diligence for, um, negotiation, closing, documentation.

And uh we'd like to do a particular spotlight on our agricultural lands.

Several of uh many of our clean water-funded acquisitions do support um active agriculture, including the ones at Wahiwa Lands, Sunset Ranch, Turtle Bay Malka, Haki Pu, Mauna Wila, and Habea Heal.

I'm now going to turn it over to Director Designate uh Kevin Auger to talk about the existing portfolio, the funding sources, and the budget.

Aloha, committee chair Kia Aina and honorable council members and committee members.

Um, Kevin O'J, I'm the director designate of the Department of Housing and Land Management.

And um just a few comments.

First, on behalf of the department, I just wanted to reiterate how grateful we are for this opportunity to present this uh informational briefing today.

I want to thank you, uh committee chair Kia Ina for your leadership and also for your interest in the committee's interest in collaborating with the department on this really important resource for the city.

You know, I had the pleasure of working and observing the team as they prepared this informational briefing over the last couple of days, and I have to tell you that the excitement from the team I can just only attest to their eagerness to uh provide this information and share out all the good work uh that our community partners uh that the Clean Water and National Lands Commission and the Department is doing with respect to the fund.

Um the Department of Land Management, as you know, became a the Department of Housing and Land Management on May 1st this year.

Um, as a department, we're supremely focused on facilitating and accelerating uh the delivery of affordable housing production on Oahu, particularly in in terms of increasing density in transit neighborhoods, uh transit-oriented neighborhoods along the rail line.