Hawaii Governor Josh Green (D) said his administration is seeking to take over the land destroyed by wildfires.
“I’m already thinking of ways for the state to acquire that land so that we can put it into workforce housing, to put it back into families, or make it open spaces in perpetuity as a memorial to the people who were lost,” the governor said.
“We want this to be something we remember after the pain passes as a magic place. Lahaina will rebuild. The tragedy right now is the loss of life.”
Green continued, “The buildings can be rebuilt over time, even the banyan tree may survive, but we don’t want this to become a clear space where then people from overseas just come and decide they’re gonna take it. The state will take it and preserve it first.”
In another press conference, Green explained he met with the state’s attorney general to discuss “options to do a moratorium on any sales of properties that have been damaged or destroyed.”
“It’s going to be a very long time before any growth or housing can be built, so you will be pretty poorly informed if you try to steal land from our people and then build here,” Green said.
“I will try to allow no one from outside our state to buy any land until we get through this crisis and decide what Lahaina should be in the future.”
Reporting from The Gateway Pundit:
Less than a week after the catastrophic event, she received a Facebook message from someone in real estate. Kaililaau, along with other residents, had been warned via social media that developers might try to buy their land, so she ignored the message. John Dimuro, a resident on the island for more than 40 years and an employee for Marriott in West Maui, summed up the local sentiment against large corporations or wealthy individuals buying up the land. “The government should just say ‘no, you’re not allowed to develop,'” he said on Monday. “Say no, just flat out no.”
