Hawaii Gov. Josh Green announced this week that the state is looking to acquire land destroyed by the recent wildfires that devastated Lahaina and other areas.
Green, a Democrat, argued the move was being looked at as a way to prevent foreign buyers from snatching up the land.
"My intention from start to finish is to make sure that no one is victimized from a land grab," Green said during a news conference. "People are right now traumatized. Please do not approach them with an offer to buy their land. Do not approach their families saying they'll be much better off if they make a deal. Because we're not going to allow it."
He has also discussed how the state could use the land.
"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," Green 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," he added. "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."
Green has already spoken to the state attorney general to discuss "options to do a moratorium on any sales of properties that have been damaged or destroyed."
He also cautioned that it will take awhile before development can occur.
"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," he 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."
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The governor's comments come as the Federal Trade Commission is also warning residents about those trying to scam them after the wildfires.
"Nobody knows how long it will take to recover from the destruction, but we do know it won’t be long before scammers start trying to cash in," the agency said on its website, before explaining some of the most common forms of disaster-related scams, such as from people who promise immediate clean-up and repairs or those who claim to be safety inspectors, utility workers, or government officials trying to help.
At the time of writing, the death toll reached 111, but there are possibly 1,000 people still missing.
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