Real Estate & Property Law

Fidell: "Labyrinthine land-use laws suffocating isle economy"

By Robert Thomas (inversecondemnation.com)

Honolulu attorney Jay Fidell (who also produces Think Tech Hawaii) writes a regular column in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. This week, he focuses on land use in "Labyrinthine land-use law suffocating isle economy," where he writes:

Everyone knows our state, like others, is in a fiscal and economic crisis. We need to revitalize our sagging economy, and fast. The governor has made this an absolute priority, and he's right ? we all have to work together to improve the economy, and that frankly includes all three branches of government.

The elephant in the room is land use, which was clear at a recent Hawaii land-use law seminar. Developers have to run a backbreaking gantlet before they can build anything. Environmental laws are increasingly used to stop projects, even if the real motivation isn't environmental but just NIMBY ("not in my backyard"). The result: Projects have become prohibitively expensive and an increasing number are stopped.

Fidell criticizes the Hawaii Supreme Court's decisions in the Ala Loop and Kuilima cases, concluding that "Hawaii has no shortage of bureaucratic barriers, and our courts seem bent on imposing more of them, extending the reach of environmental laws to the point where activism rules and 'development' and 'return on investment' are taboo."

Read Jay's column in conjunction with U.H. lawprof David Callies' comments at a forum yesterday where he noted that environmental plaintiffs have a 90% success rate in the Hawaii Supreme Court, and a larger picture takes shape. Will their messages be received, or will they be further examples of zivilcourage that fall on deaf ears?

Full post as published by inversecondemnation on March 01, 2011 (boomark / email).