Territorial Planning Board

Corporate body

Territorial Planning Board

1938-1955

Motivated by the necessity for emergency planning to alleviate the effects of the depression, the National Resources Committee (called National Resources Planning Board after 1939) and forty-six state planning boards were established in the early 1930s. In Hawaiʻi, the Nineteenth Legislature in 1937 enacted Act 207 which authorized the establishment of the Territorial Planning Board. However, ventures into the sphere of civic planning had been made since the turn of the century: in 1906 the Civic Federation Committee on Streets, Parks and Public Works was established, in 1911 the Outdoor Circle was organized, and in 1915 the Honolulu Planning Commission was established.

Act 207 authorized the Governor to appoint nine members to the Territorial Planning Board. The superintendent of Public Works, president of the Board of Agriculture and Forestry, and the federal Public Works Administrator or representative of public works were designated as ex-officio members, Of the other six members who were appointed by the Governor with the advice and consent of the Senate, at least one had to be an architect and one an engineer. In 1939 the Legislature passed an amendment changing the membership of the Board, but the measure died by pocket veto.

The duties of the Territorial Planning Board were the preparation of a territorial master plan; advisement of territorial and local officials in coordinating territorial development; regulation, coordination and correlation of public works employment; collection and publication of information relating to proper territorial development; and responsibility for conferring and co-operating with federal and military officials in scheduling public works projects. The Board was responsible for the preparation of maps and planning studies and surveys to gather information on matters pertaining to the physical development of the Territory. Because it was charged with the approval of plans relating to public improvement, government agencies were required to submit written notices of contemplated construction to the Territorial Planning Board. The Board was further authorized to accept and use funds provided by the United States government, and was required to submit a report of its plans and recommendations biennially to the Governor and Legislature.

On January 10, 1939 Governor Poindexter appointed Charles D. Rosecrans, chairman, A. L. Burdick, Robert M. Belt, Ray Morris (architect), and Chester K. Wentworth (engineer) to the Territorial Planning Board. The ex-officio members were Louis S. Cain, superintendent of Public Works and Frank H. Locey, president of the Board of Agriculture and Forestry. The Board held its organizational meeting on February 10, 1938. Subsequently, monthly meetings were held which included public hearings and meetings on the outer islands.

The Territorial Planning Board, in practice, functioned as an administrative unit. On March 28, 1938 the Board appointed Joseph F. Kunesh as director to implement the provisions of Act 207. He headed a staff of five until his resignation in January, 1941, and was succeeded by Karl A. Sinclair.

The Territorial Planning Board received assistance from the National Resources Planning Board which provided general advisory and liaison services for state planning boards. In addition to the services of the National Resources Planning Board, the Territorial Planning Board had two advisory committees: Pursuant to a letter from Harold Ickes, chairman of the National Resources Committee, the Land Planning Committee, similar to those previously established on the mainland, was appointed by the Board. The Human Resources Committee was an outgrowth of a meeting called by Frank Midkiff to consider the problem of unemployment in Honolulu.

Following a technique of planned activity adopted from the National Resources Planning Board and existing state planning boards, the Territorial Planning Board initially concentrated on research before attempting to ascertain needed facilities. Accordingly, the first report of the Board to the Governor and Legislature was An Historic Inventory of the Physical, Social, and Economic Industrial Resources of the Territory of Hawaiʻi (Publication No. 1), which was an accumulation of data essential to planning. This was followed by its supplement, Existing Urban Resources and Facilities of the Territory of Hawaiʻi (Publication No. 2) .

In addition to the preceding publications, the Board published nine other reports. Surface Water Resources of the Territory of Hawaii, 1901-1938 (Publication No. 4) also focuses on research. One of the incentives for its publication was the prevention of costly duplication of effort in research and planning that required knowledge of the availability of water. Also pertinent to the subject of water is the "Report of a Subcommittee of the Land Planning Committee on the Molokaʻi Irrigation Project" (Publication No. 3) which evaluates a report made to the Commissioner of Reclamation, Department of Interior.

At the first meeting of the executive committee of the Human Resources Committee, a decision was reached that the efforts of the committee should be focused on the unemployment problem. Collaborating with the Education Committee of the Honolulu Chamber of Commerce, an unemployment survey was conducted by John R. Sedgwick. The results are published in Unemployment Survey Honolulu Rural Oʻahu, December, 1939 (Publication No. 5).

In the later publications the Board begins to implement Section 2 of Act 207. The following reports were mandated by the Twentieth Legislature: Lands for Our Public Schools, An Integral Part of the Territorial Master Plan (Publication No. 6) by Joint Resolution 4; Master Plan of the Town of Kapaʻa (Publication No. 8) by Senate Joint Resolution 11 which was included in Act 244 (General Appropriations Act); Master Plan of the City of Hilo (Publication No. 9) by Senate Joint Resolution 12, included in Act 244; and Report of the Executive Legislative Quarters, Civic Center, City of Honolulu, Hawaii (Publication No. 10) by Senate Concurrent Resolution 8. For the Master Flan of the Town of Hanapepe (Publication No. 7) the Board of Supervisors of the County of Kauaʻi solicited the assistance of the Territorial Planning Board when differences in viewpoint arose between the County and private interests during the development of a master plan for the town.

The last publication of the Board was Conservation Development of National Resources: Program for Hawaiʻi (Publication No. 11), which in­cluded a proposed zoning enabling act. It served the multiple purposes of being the first statement of planning objectives by the Board, the second progress report to the Legislature, and answering a request from the National Resources Planning Board for participation in the national "Program for the Conservation and Development of the Resources of the United States.

Under Act 244, $6,000 had been appropriated for a Park, Parkway, and Recreational Area Study, which was made in cooperation with the National; Park Service to implement Public Law 7701/2 [sic] (74th Congress). The study was nearly completed but was not published.

Other special studies and activities included joint sponsorship of a civic center planning contest with the Honolulu Planning Commission, and a development of the Kaimuki Library-Civic Center and the Keehi Lagoon seaport. During the compilation of the 1940 Census, the Board assisted the Census Bureau by supplying maps of centers of population that were prepared for the report on urban facilities.

During the regular session of the Twenty-first Legislature, by request of the Territorial Planning Board, a bill was introduced to appropriate funds for the acquisition of land sites for public buildings, thereby implementing the recommendations in Publication 10. The measure, however, died in committee.

The Twenty-first Legislature by Joint Resolution 22 mandated the preparation of a master plan for the construction of public school buildings. However, funds for the operation of the Board were deleted from the General Appropriations Act in the Senate, thereby leaving the Board without operating funds for the 1941-1943 biennium. On the advice of Governor Poindexter, the members of the Board continued to hold their commissions, and correspondence was continued on a limited basis by Chester K. Wentworth, acting chairman. When the Twenty-second Legislature (1943) failed to appropriate funds, with the consent of Governor Stainback and the superintendent of Public Works, the records and files of the Board were transferred to the newly created Legislative Reference Bureau at the University of Hawaiʻi.

In 1954 the Territorial Planning Board was reactivated by Governor Samuel W. King. Unlike the previous Board, the emphasis of the new Board was on rural land utilization. However, in 1955 the Legislature failed to appropriate funds for the operation of the Board, and its activities lapsed. The same legislature enacted Act 264 which established the Economic Planning and Coordination Authority. It authorized the transference of all funds and equipment, including records, of the Territorial Planning Board to the newly created Authority.

The records include the minutes, reports, and correspondence of the Territorial Planning Board and its advisory committees. The correspondence consists primarily of material accumulated in the process of compiling data for the published reports. In addition, there are materials compiled for the reports which were not published.

In addition to the records of the Territorial Planning Board, the files include the correspondence of Joseph F. Kunesh, director, as a member of various committees in the community. These are generally filed by subjects. Also included in the files is the Industrial and Commercial Survey conducted by the Honolulu Chamber of Commerce in 1935-1936.

Economic Planning and Coordination Authority (1955-1960)

Hawaiʻi State Archives

Entered into AToM by Ronald Williams Jr. on 29 March 2021

2021-03-29, Ronald Williams Jr, Entered into AtoM.
2021-08-23, Carol Kellett: Updated in AtoM.