URGING STATE AGENCIES THAT OWN OR CONTROL LAND IN WEST MAUI TO IMPLEMENT AND ENFORCE AGGRESSIVE VEGETATION MANAGEMENT, FUEL REDUCTION, DEFENSIBLE SPACE, AND EMERGENCY ACCESS MEASURES TO REDUCE WILDFIRE RISK TO LAHAINA AND SURROUNDING COMMUNITIES.

HR132

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.R. NO.

132

THIRTY-THIRD LEGISLATURE, 2026

STATE OF HAWAII

HOUSE RESOLUTION

Urging state agencies that own or control land in west
maui to IMPLEMENT AND ENFORCE AGGRESSIVE VEGETATION MANAGEMENT, FUEL REDUCTION,
DEFENSIBLE SPACE, AND EMERGENCY ACCESS MEASURES TO REDUCE WILDFIRE RISK TO
LAHAINA AND SURROUNDING COMMUNITIES.

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WHEREAS, Act 302, Session Laws of Hawaii
2025 (Act 302), established the Office of the State Fire Marshal within the
Department of Law Enforcement for administrative purposes and charged the Office
with reviewing and assessing the fire risk of the State, coordinating fire
protection efforts among local agencies, and conducting inspections of state
buildings and facilities to ensure fire safety compliance; and

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WHEREAS, Act 302 allowed the Office of the
State Fire Marshal to oversee development of a statewide wildfire hazard map
and to facilitate vegetation management, defensible space, and other fuel
modification activities through a community risk reduction program; and

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WHEREAS, Act 302 further required the
Office of the State Fire Marshal to submit a biennial report to the Legislature
regarding community risk reduction and the establishment, administration, and
enforcement of defensible space requirements, thereby reflecting a clear
statewide policy that wildfire-risk reduction on public lands is an ongoing
government responsibility and not a discretionary afterthought; and

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WHEREAS, the Legislature has continued to
consider additional vegetation-management measures to reduce wildfire risk,
including proposals to require owners and persons in control of hazardous
fire-area property to maintain effective firebreaks and clear flammable
vegetation, to establish a community fuels reduction project on state lands
adjacent to communities, to require trimming of hazardous vegetation near
utility corridors and public rights-of-way by public and private property
owners, and to treat hazardous vegetation as a public nuisance subject to
abatement; and

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WHEREAS, reports on the Lahaina wildfire
and its aftermath documented that state-owned lands formed part of the larger,
unmanaged, fire-prone grassland landscape around Lahaina and that West Maui
remained at high wildfire risk because invasive grasses lacked active
management, placing the State on clear notice that similar conditions can again
serve as a conduit for the spread of fire into developed areas if hazardous
fuels are not systematically reduced; and

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WHEREAS, the Hawaii Housing Finance and
Development Corporation controls substantial lands in the Lahaina area,
including the Villages of Leialii, which are situated on approximately 1,128
acres of state-owned land mauka of the Lahaina Civic Center, and the State
previously leased approximately twenty acres adjacent to the Lahaina Civic
Center from the Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corporation for public
use and expansion of civic facilities; and

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WHEREAS, temporary housing areas for
wildfire survivors were developed on approximately fifty-seven acres mauka of
the Lahaina Civic Center, and reporting on the temporary housing areas emphasized
both the presence of brush conditions before development and the critical role
of an emergency evacuation route in allowing escape from Lahaina during the
2023 Maui wildfires; and

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WHEREAS, the Department of Hawaiian Home
Lands has direct interests in West Maui, including the Leialii Hawaiian
homestead community located just minutes west of Lahaina, and the possible
transfer of hundreds of additional acres within the Villages of Leialii project
further demonstrates the Department�s substantial and growing land-management
responsibility in this fire-prone corridor; and

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WHEREAS, the Department of Education
likewise controls and operates critical school lands and facilities in Lahaina,
and the State found it necessary after the 2023 Maui wildfires to construct a
2.5-mile emergency evacuation route from the Lahainaluna fire lane to the
Lahaina Bypass, with additional access improvements, before Lahaina schools
could safely reopen, confirming the severe ingress and egress constraints
affecting this area; and

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WHEREAS, community concern remains acute
regarding rampant vegetation growth on large parcels near homes, schools,
evacuation corridors, and temporary housing areas for wildfire survivors, and
public reporting one and two years after the Lahaina disaster continued to
describe broad stretches of unmanaged flammable grass on Maui and to emphasize
that large property owners need to do more to reduce fuel loads; and

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WHEREAS, the winter of 2025 into 2026
brought repeated periods of heavy rain, flood watches, and saturated ground
conditions in the County of Maui, and while the storms reduced immediate
dryness in some areas, it is a reasonable inference that repeated winter rain
events have accelerated vegetative growth that may cure into additional
wildfire fuel as conditions dry later in the year; now, therefore,

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BE IT RESOLVED by the House of
Representatives of the Thirty-third Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular
Session of 2026, that state agencies owning or controlling land in West Maui,
including the Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corporation, Department of
Hawaiian Home Lands, Department of Accounting and General Services, Department
of Land and Natural Resources, and any other applicable state agencies, are
urged to immediately identify, prioritize, and abate hazardous vegetation,
invasive grasses, and other combustible growth on lands in or adjacent to
Lahaina and nearby West Maui communities for the purpose of reducing the risk
of wildfires; and

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BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that applicable
state agencies are urged to establish and maintain defensible space, fuel
breaks, and other appropriate fuel-modification measures on state-owned or
-controlled lands bordering residential communities, schools, temporary housing
areas for wildfire survivors, major evacuation corridors, and other occupied or
vulnerable areas in West Maui; and

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BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that applicable
state agencies are urged to inspect and maintain all existing emergency access
roads, fire lanes, gates, and potential secondary ingress and egress routes
serving or affecting state-owned or -controlled lands in West Maui, and where any
existing routes are incomplete or inadequate, to work with the Office of the
State Fire Marshal, Department of Transportation, Maui Emergency Management
Agency, and County of Maui to accelerate additional emergency-access
improvements; and

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BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Office of
the State Fire Marshal is urged to use its authority to inspect state buildings
and facilities, assess fire risk, coordinate fire protection efforts, and
support community risk reduction to assist in evaluating state-owned or
-controlled lands in West Maui and in recommending site-specific corrective
actions, including vegetation management, defensible space, and emergency
access improvements; and

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BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Hawaii
Housing Finance and Development Corporation, Department of Hawaiian Home Lands,
and Department of Education are urged to give immediate priority to parcels in
and around the Lahaina Civic Center, Leialii, Lahainaluna, Princess Nahienaena
Elementary, Lahaina Intermediate School, and other state-associated facilities
or lands where hazardous vegetation and constrained evacuation routes could
endanger residents, students, staff, or wildfire survivors; and

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BE IT FURTHER
RESOLVED that the Department of Land and Natural Resources, Department of
Hawaiian Home Lands, Department of Accounting and General Services, Hawaii
Housing Finance and Development Corporation, and any other applicable state agencies
are requested to submit a report of their efforts to the Legislature no later
than December 31, 2026; and

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BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified
copies of this Resolution be transmitted to the Governor, Adjutant General,
Chairperson of the Board of Land and Natural Resources, Chairperson of the
Hawaiian Homes Commission, Superintendent of Education, Director of
Transportation, Executive Director of the Hawaii Housing Finance and
Development Corporation, Administrator of the Hawaii Emergency Management
Agency, and State Fire Marshal.

OFFERED BY:

_____________________________

Report Title:
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State
Agencies; Maui County; Fire Hazard Removal; Report