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Joint House, Senate session to take up land lease extensions
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Posted on Aug 01 2011
House Speaker Eli Cabrera (R-Saipan) and Senate President Paul Manglona (Ind-Rota) called yesterday for a joint session this Friday to review and consider the proposed land lease extensions for South Pacific Lumber in Lower Base and Suwaso Corp., which owns Coral Ocean Point.
Cabrera and Manglona, in their one-page memo yesterday, said the joint session will be at 2pm on Aug. 5 in the House chamber.
But the third joint session for the House and Senate may be postponed, considering that the Department of Public Lands is still seeking public comments on Suwaso Corp.’s proposal to extend its lease by 15 years. The public comment period ends on Aug. 10.
DPL said yesterday it has yet to formally receive invitation or notice about the joint session.
Manglona said they may decide today whether to go ahead with Friday’s session.
Suwaso Corp. is proposing to extend by 15 years its 25-year lease that is expiring this month. It is also planning a $42 million revitalization project that will be done in two phases.
The area covered by the lease is composed of 735,023 square meters in Unai Dangkulu where Coral Ocean Point is located.
The final decision to grant Coral Ocean Point’s proposed lease extension lies not with DPL but with the Legislature. Any lease and extension of lease of public land consisting of more than 5 hectares requires legislative approval.
South Pacific Lumber, for its part, is proposing to extend by 15 years two of its 25-year public land leases in Lower Base. DPL has reviewed and supports this request.
South Pacific Lumber’s two separate 25-year leases won’t expire until March 30, 2015 and Nov. 30, 2015.
