Lawmakers say an updated land use plan is needed

Lawmakers that attended a rally on Saturday to back the lease renewal of Kan Pacific’s Marianas Resort and Spa in Marpi said an updated land use plan is needed to guide all new developments in the CNMI.

“It’s critical,” said Rep. Ramon Tebuteb (Ind-Saipan). “That’s what’s lacking when we look at the overall planning of the development in the Commonwealth.”

Citing the existence of a zoning policy for Saipan, Tebuteb said there also needs to have “an overall sort of a Commonwealth plan.”

“It’s important,” said Rep. Vincent Sablan (Ind-Saipan) in a separate interview. “We really have to look into it. We don’t want to set the wrong precedent here,” noting that Kan Pacific’s lease—which expires in 2018—is “the first of its kind,” as it is a land lease that’s expiring after the 40-year maximum lease years mandated by the NMI Constitution.

On the land-lease policy, Sablan said the CNMI needs consistency. “We cannot just come up with different methods and decisions with different leases. It just doesn’t work like that.

“What happens now with Kan Pacific or the fate of Kan Pacific will set a precedent for the next the leases that are coming up,” Sablan said, noting hotel officials of Hyatt Regency Saipan and Fiesta Resort & Spa Saipan that attended the rally.

“So the land use plan needs to be tuned up, if not created…because what we are doing now is just…playing it by ear. We are just making decisions on certain leases as we go. We can’t do that. There needs to be consistency,” he said.

The RFP

“I totally understand what they are doing,” said Best Sunshine International Ltd. CEO Mark Brown, whose company has confirmed a plan to pursue Kan Pacific’s Marpi property once the lease expires.

When asked to comment on the Saturday rally, Brown said, “I would probably be doing the exact same thing. Again, as I mentioned before, it’s a business. An RFP is going to go out. That’s what’s being told.”

“There will be many other companies. I’m hearing two, maybe three. So there are other big, big companies out there that are also interested in that parcel of land. Again, we are here on island and we have proven the type of business and type of neighbor that we are, so we are not going to sit back and watch someone else go in for the RFP. We will be right there side by side with whoever else is there.

“…It’s a business. And we will be as heavily involved as we possibly can, just like the other companies in the RFP,” said Brown.

The administration of Gov. Eloy S. Inos has backed the Department of Public Lands’ decision to issue a request for proposals for the lands currently leased to Kan Pacific in Marpi.

Final say

However, the decision to lease lands larger than five acres will have to made by the Legislature, Sablan and Tebuteb noted Saturday.

“Eventually, the say will come down to the Legislature in the end,” said Sablan. “A lot of the discussions now are based on constitutionality or not. They say you cannot extend the lease over 40 years—true. But nothing says you can’t renew an exiting lease.”

From 2013 to 2014, Kan Pacific and DPL exchanged multiple letters to begin negotiations to renew the Marpi lease, according to a Kan Pacific letter to DPL that documented these events. But negotiations suffered an “apparent interruption,” blamed on Best Sunshine’s aggressive pursuit of public lands to meet construction and project mandates as Saipan’s exclusive casino licensee, according to a letter from Kan Pacific to DPL.

DPL Secretary Pete A. Tenorio has said that the CNMI is constitutionally prohibited from entering into a new lease with Mariana Resort until after their current 40-year lease expires in 2018. However, Kan Pacific argues that the property will not automatically revert to the government, as a provision in their lease agreement provides that “the lessor shall inform the lessee whether it intends to initiate the transition of the management of the facilities to lessor.”

“DPL was contractually obligated to give notice of intent,” Kan Pacific lawyer Joseph J. Iacopino earlier wrote. “However, such notice was not given, the deadline passed and, instead of giving such notice, DPL encouraged Kan Pacific to enter into subsequent lease with another 40-year term.”

On DPL’s position for an RFP, Sablan notes that an “RFP is not in the Constitution.”

“Neither is a new lease,” he added. “Extension is the only word that is there.”

“DPL has the authority to negotiate and whatnot but in the end it’s going to come to the Legislature. So we’ll see where that goes.”

On the administration’s position that a competitive bid would serve the “best interests” of the CNMI, Tebuteb asked, “How do you define best interest?”

“According to the RFP? Those are all speculations. Any RFP are all speculations until such time until they are fully approved. …How do you measure what’s best for the people? How do you measure that? You can’t. And frankly speaking it’s hard when you have policy makers who have deep pockets,” he said.