East Hawaii lawmakers favor the use of an emergency proclamation to expedite demolition of the former Uncle Billy’s Hilo Bay Hotel.
Hilo Councilwoman Sue Lee Loy will introduce at a council committee hearing next week a resolution urging Gov. Josh Green to issue an emergency proclamation to speed up the process to remove the dilapidated building, which has been disused since 2017.
Citing the frequent fires and calls to police and emergency services that have plagued the building — the resolution claims there have been 6,479 police calls in the area between September 2018 and April 2023 — the measure argues that the state’s delays in removing the structure property constitute both a health hazard and a significant financial cost to the county.
“The police and fire department are spending half a million dollars on responding to calls just from Uncle Billy’s,” Lee Loy said Tuesday. “Anybody who’s taken the drive down Banyan Drive can see how bad it is.”
Since the hotel ceased operating in 2017, there have been several efforts by the Department of Land and Natural Resources — which manages the state land upon which the building sits — to either repurpose the site or finance the structure’s demolition.
However, an attempt in 2021 to solicit redevelopment proposals was aborted, and a demolition project was estimated last year to cost roughly $13.5 million.
A state budget bill passed in 2022 did allocate $13.5 million for the project through a DLNR special fund, although the allocation does not require the DLNR to carry out the demolition by any particular deadline.
Hilo Rep. Richard Onishi noted that it won’t be clear whether the funding is sufficient for the project until it is put out to bid and contractors offer cost estimates.
“I know an emergency proclamation is kind of a nuclear option,” Lee Loy said. “But emergency powers can help truncate a lot of these processes. Considering how long we’ve had to wait already, we don’t want this to keep dragging on.”
Onishi said that, through an emergency proclamation, the state administration can elide certain parts of the preparatory work necessary for a demolition project such as an environmental assessment or the state’s procurement process.
Hilo Sen. Lorraine Inouye said that the standard procurement process would take the rest of the year to complete if it began today, and would still not be the last step before demolition could begin.
“If the proclamation was signed immediately, things might be in place by the end of the year, beginning of next year,” Onishi said.
Onishi said that DLNR chair Dawn Chang is working with both the county and Green, and that he believes all parties are on board with the use of an emergency proclamation and agree about the project’s urgency.
“We’ve seen the governor do a lot of work with the environment, and this is in alignment with those goals,” Lee Loy said.
Lee Loy added that should the demolition take place, redevelopment of the site might be unfeasible, because the county and state’s land use policies regarding shoreline setbacks, flood zones and parking requirements have changed significantly since Uncle Billy’s was built.
But Lee Loy and Inouye agreed that Banyan Drive is long overdue for revitalization.
“Before this, I came from 21 years managing at the former Orchid Island Hotel,” Inouye said. “This is my home, and I remember that Banyan Drive used to be beautiful, and it could be again.”
Email Michael Brestovansky at mbrestovansky@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
