City lawmakers are leading the push to return Sand Island’s name to its Native Hawaiian name Mauliola, which means “breath of life” or “power of healing.”

Over 641 acres in size and largely man-made, Sand Island features industrial zone businesses, a U.S. military base, a state-owned recreational park and the city’s prime wastewater treatment facility, all within Honolulu Harbor.

But the site also has significant local history, and that’s why the Honolulu City Council’s International and Legal Affairs Committee voted unanimously last week to pass Resolution 63, which urges the Hawaii State Board on Geographic Names (HBGN) to rename the site as Mauliola. The full Council is expected Wednesday to review Resolution 63 for approval.

The resolution, introduced by Council member Radiant Cordero, states, “From the mid-1800s through the mid-1900s, this small tidal island grew in size with the dredging and infilling of Honolulu Harbor, altering an area that had once been a large complex of fishponds and reefs.”

The resolution says the name Mauliola harks back to the late 1800s and early 1900s, when the rapid urbanization of Honolulu and an increasingly busy harbor brought an influx of disease, which rapidly spread.

“Mauliola was utilized to quarantine ships, and the government built a crematorium on the island, which in part led to Mauliola becoming known as Quarantine Island,” the resolution read.

Over time, Quarantine Island grew in size with more dredging and infilling of Honolulu Harbor in the 1940s. The island was utilized by the military as a coastal defense station and an internment camp during World War II, for Japanese Americans and other Axis nationals.

The resolution states, “Quarantine Island later became known by its present name, Sand Island, which is listed as the island’s official name on the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS), a federal repository for identifying official place names. State governments are given the authority to provide ‘administrative names’ to places, which are then listed in the GNIS.”

The state Board on Geographic Names was established to designate the official place names and spellings of geographic features in the state of Hawaii, and to ensure uniformity in the use and spelling of geographic features, the resolution says.

“The HBGN uses cultural and historical significance as a criterion for considering a name change, with preference given to names in ‘Olelo Hawaii,” the resolution states.

Rhonda Burk, advocacy chair for the Oahu Hawaiian Canoe Racing Association, or OHCRA, during an April 30 committee meeting told the panel that her group had officially requested that Sand Island be renamed Mauliola.

She said that name “embodies values of healing, renewal and interconnectedness that resonate deeply within our paddling community.”

“Renaming Sand Island to Mauliola aligns with efforts to restore traditional place names and highlights the historical and cultural significance of this location, which was historically used by Native Hawaiians and later became a site of a World War II detention camp,” Burk added.

The canoe racing association was not alone in its Sand Island name-change request. In submitted written testimony to the Council, state Sen. Glenn Wakai (D, Kalihi, Mapunapuna, Airport) expressed his support for Resolution 63 as well.

“Renaming the island to its original name of Mauliola is a thoughtful and appropriate action to reflect the historical and cultural significance of the area,” Wakai said. “While many know it today as Sand Island, the name Mauliola connects us to the deeper history of the island, particularly its role as a place of quarantine and the meaning behind the name itself, which refers to healing and renewal.”

“Recognizing original place names in ‘Olelo Hawaii is one way we can promote awareness of and respect for Native Hawaiian culture,” he added. “It also helps preserve the unique identity of our communities and the stories tied to the land.”

At the meeting, Cordero said the resolution’s effort was only “a starting base.”

She also stressed that the requested name change will not affect address changes or renaming to actual streets and thoroughfares — including to well-traveled Sand Island Access Road, off North Nimitz Highway.

HONOLULU – The Hawai‘i Department of Transportation (HDOT) today hosted a blessing and groundbreaking to mark the start of construction of the Farrington Highway Widening Project, an approximately three-mile stretch from the Kapolei Golf Course Road near the University of Hawai‘i – West O‘ahu to Old Fort Weaver Road. The widening project will expand the current two-lane road to include a new two-way turn lane, as well as bike lanes and pedestrian sidewalks on both sides from Kapolei to ‘Ewa.

The scope of the project will include reconstruction of the Kaloi Stream Bridge and Honouliuli Stream Bridge, as well as construction of drainage structures and culverts; asphalt and concrete pavements; concrete curbs, gutters and sidewalks; gas, water and sewar lines; street lighting, traffic signals and landscaping. The work also will include relocation of water mains, relocation of overhead and underground electrical and telecommunications infrastructure, demolition and removal of structures, clearing, grading and pavement markings and signage.

The project is designed to meet future capacity needs, while also balancing multimodal travel for pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists and transit users. The widening will support the development of affordable housing and commercial uses in the area, while also providing connections to four of the city’s Skyline stations, including the Kualakaʻi – East Kapolei, Keoneʻae – UHWO, Honouliuli – Hoʻopili, and Hoʻaeʻae, West Loch stations.

The $138 million project, which was awarded to contractor Nan, Inc., is anticipated to take two years, with an estimated completion in Spring 2027. The City and County of Honolulu is committing $15 million towards construction.

For more information on the Farrington Highway Widening, please see https://hidot.hawaii.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Farrington-Highway-Widening-TOD-April.pdf

A picture of the groundbreaking may be downloaded at https://hidot.hawaii.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/farrington-widening-groundbreaking-scaled.jpg

Please credit “Hawaii Department of Transportation” or “HDOT” if you use it. Pictured left to right is Ed Shukri, vice president of Nan Inc.; Representative Darius Kila, chair, House Transportation Committee; Ed Sniffen, director, Hawaii Department of Transportation; Senator Henry Aquino, former House Transportation Committee chair, representing Pearl City, Waipahu, West Loch Estates, Hono‘uli‘uli, Ho‘opili; and Brandi Lasconia an inspector with QRSE, HDOT’s construction management consultant.

In 2021, Nolan Hong and his wife were trying to buy their first home on Oʻahu. They kept getting outbid with cash offers above the asking price.

“It became clear that many of the buyers we were competing against were not in the same boat as us — a local family simply trying to put down roots,” the couple wrote in legislative testimony supporting the Kama’aina Homes Program bill.

It was one of two bills proposed in this year’s legislative session that aimed to address the housing crisis by setting aside certain properties for residents. But lawmakers couldn’t hash out their differences, and both bills died.

Instead, the Legislature passed bills meant to boost the supply of housing overall. While those bills could address the shortage behind rising home prices, they are likely to take longer — in some cases, years — to have an impact.

Although advocates were disappointed by the failure of the Kama’aina Homes bill, they said the session shows that the state is making progress to increase the housing supply and bring down costs.

“We’ve had a chronic housing crisis here in Hawai‘i for decades, and so we’re not going to solve it with a simple cure-all,” said Perry Arrasmith, director of policy at Housing Hawaiʻi’s Future, a group that advocates for workforce housing. “Our housing shortage is 1,001 different pieces of a constantly shifting puzzle.”

Progress Report

A weeklong series looking at some of the state’s most pressing issues and what lawmakers are doing to address them.

• Environment: Bolder Action Needed To Protect Hawaiʻi’s Environment

• Native Hawaiians: Help With Housing Continues To Elude The Hawaiian Community

• Invasive Species: Hawaiʻi Primes Itself To Battle Biosecurity Threats

• Education: Hawaiʻi’s Working Families Need More Support

• Fireworks: Hawaiʻi Fireworks Reforms Put Enforcement Onus On Police

• Insurance: Will Reforms Stabilize Hawaiʻi Condo Insurance Costs?

• Progress Report: Neighbor Islands Need More State Support On The Job Front

• Progress Report: A Series Of Child Abuse Deaths Failed To Spur Major Reform

No Homes Reserved For Locals

The bill that Hong and his wife, Jamie Yamagata, testified in favor of would have funded county programs that give homeowners or homebuyers grants in exchange for agreeing to deed restrictions that limit ownership to people who work in Hawaiʻi.

A similar bill would have allocated funds so counties could provide grants to homeowners to construct accessory dwelling units — separate living quarters on the property — in exchange for deed restrictions.

The bills were based on a program in the ski town of Vail, Colorado. Since 2018, about 1,000 homes have been taken off the market in Vail for people who don’t live or work there, according to the text of one bill.

Advocates said the bills’ failures set back efforts to offer immediate help to residents in a state where the median single-family home price is now just over $1 million, more than half of renters pay upwards of 30% of their income in rent, and a quarter of homebuyers in the last quarter of 2024 lived elsewhere.

“We missed a huge opportunity to give counties power to say, you know what, we’re going to give residents money so that right now, when they sell it or when they rent out that property, we can 100% guarantee it’s going to another resident,” said Arjuna Heim, director of housing policy at Hawaiʻi Appleseed, a social justice policy research and advocacy organization.

State Sen. Stanley Chang, chair of the Senate Housing Committee, said he supports deed restrictions in theory but believes giving grants to a small number of people is an inefficient use of taxpayer money. He argued that low-interest loans would be better because as they’re paid off, that money can be used to assist others.

Chang said lawmakers negotiated the terms of both bills but couldn’t get to yes before the session ended.

“We got closer and closer to common ground,” he said. “We just ran out of time.”

$200 Million To Lend To Developers

Lawmakers appropriated $200 million to a program offering low-interest loans to developers to build affordable rental housing. That’s on top of $300 million provided three years ago. More than 2,000 below-market-value units built with the assistance of the 2022 allocation are expected to come on line this year.

The fund has $186 million available for other projects, said Gordon Pang, a spokesperson with the state’s Housing Finance & Development Corporation.

Under another bill that passed and that advocates lauded, the fund would also be used to encourage higher density development in neighborhoods around transit stations, like those for Honolulu’s Skyline rail system.

Under the bill, counties that want the state to fund mixed-income rental housing in those neighborhoods would have to meet density standards established in the bill. It requires those projects to be approved by planning officials based on objective standards rather than by elected officials.

The Legislature has not yet funded that program, said Rep. Luke Evslin, chair of the House Housing Committee, but he said he hopes it will next year.

“Now we have the definition of transit-supportive density in statute, and we should over time be tying more and more funding sources to that definition,” Evslin said.

Housing advocates acknowledged the impacts of the high-density development program won’t be felt for some time, but they said the bill lays the foundation to pursue such housing in urban areas.

“It’s a very forward-thinking bill,” Arrasmith said.

Speeding Up Project Approvals

Lawmakers also passed bills that aim to break up bureaucratic logjams blamed for holding up projects.

Several bills tackle delays at the state’s Historic Preservation Division, which reviews development proposals to determine their impact on historic and cultural properties.

The division serves a critical purpose in a state with thousands of Native Hawaiian historic and sacred sites threatened by tourism and development. But housing advocates and developers say those reviews can slow construction because under state law, any structure older than 50 years is potentially historic.

A study by the libertarian group Grassroot Institute of Hawaiʻi found that the Historic Preservation Division handled 2,300 projects between 2021 to 2024 and took an average of 94 days to review each one.

One bill tightened the state’s definition of a historic structure, adding that it must be eligible for the state’s register of historic places. The bill also excluded certain projects from historic review, including some on existing residential property.

Another bill allows the understaffed office to hire outside consultants to conduct reviews.

“Obviously there are a lot of things here that need historical review,” said Ted Kefalas, director of strategic campaigns at the Grassroot Institute. But “not everything over 50 years is historical,” he said, and if the preservation division “needs a long time to look at these things, it’s OK to ask for help.”

Self-Permitting Bill Weakened

Another bill that aims to cut red tape would have allowed architects to sign off on building permits for certain projects themselves if a county doesn’t do so within 60 days. The bill cited a study that found it took Hawaiʻi three times as long to issue building permits than the nationwide average.

Justin Tyndall, a University of Hawaiʻi economics professor who co-authored the 2022 study, said the bill had been watered down as it made its way through the Legislature.

As introduced, the bill would have required counties to issue a building permit within 60 days if a project met certain conditions. By the time the bill was forwarded to the governor’s desk, it simply said that after 60 days, applicants can apply for an expedited permit that they could sign themselves if certain conditions were met — including that the building is under three stories tall and that the architect is adequately insured and absolves the county of liability.

The bill “might result in shorter permitting times, which is probably helpful,” Tyndall said. But it’s “probably not a game changer.”

Housing advocates across the ideological spectrum were more hopeful than Tyndall, but they said any impact of the bill would depend on whether counties embrace the process. “It’s a question of whether they play by the spirit of the law or slow-walk it,” Kefalas said.

One Honolulu architect whose firm handles multi-family, affordable and workforce housing said he is concerned about the liability that might come with signing permits for the firm’s own projects.

“The permitting process is so slow and onerous here, and time is money,” said Grant Chang, a principal at Lowney Architecture. “And something like this could really help. But I think we’re very cautious about it.”

Last week, a similar self-certification program developed by the Honolulu City Council was launched, 18 months after it was created. The program’s start was delayed by the same staffing issues that had led to a backlog in building permits, officials said.