Senate Floor Leader Corina Magofna attends a meeting of the Senate Committees on Resources, Economic Development & Programs, and Gaming in the Senate chamber.
SENATE Floor Leader Corina L. Magofna on Monday pre-filed Senate Bill 23-48 which would “enhance fiscal responsibility and transparency” in developing and updating the CNMI’s comprehensive land use plan.
According to the bill, the promulgation of a comprehensive land use plan should be based on the availability of funds, and with the following objectives:
1) Coordinate use and development of public lands with the plans, programs and requirements of other Commonwealth agencies.
2) Identify all public lands and priority of uses.
3) Identify and reserve suitable lands for homesteads.
4) Identify and reserve lands that contain resources critical to the Commonwealth, such as but not limited to, springs suitable for producing potable water, groundwater aquifers that need protection, potential sites of municipal quarries, current and future sites for government buildings, habitat mitigation areas, wetlands, prime public recreation areas, potential school sites, potential hospital sites, and potential transportation corridors.
5) Identify and reserve lands that should be made available to private developers for generation of revenue.
6) Identify lands that should be made available for exchange in order to improve the manageability and value of the public land holdings and other public purposes such as the acquisition of rights of way.
7) Identify lands that need special handling due to the presence of hazardous materials, dangerous structures, or other special circumstances.
8) Encompass all the lands of the CNMI.
According to the bill, Public Law 15-2, which established the Comprehensive Land Use Plan, “lacks specific guidance on the financial aspects of the land use plan development and updating.” To address this, S.B. 23-48 proposes to ensure that the development and periodic updating of the land use plan “are predicated on the availability of funds, thus promoting fiscal responsibility and transparency, while still upholding the need for regular updates to reflect evolving priorities within the Commonwealth.”