HONOLULU -- Honolulu Council members Wednesday voted six to three to repeal the city's mandatory leasehold to fee condominium conversion law.

Some residents are currently in the process of trying to convert their condominium units. They are now stopped in their tracks. They say they will sue.

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Supporters of the repeal rejoiced when the vote was final.

"You know I am just ecstatic. It was a long road," repeal supporter Leilani Collins said.

Charter school students and Hawaiian activists were bussed in to support and celebrate the repeal. However, the hundreds of apartment dwellers currently trying to convert their units to fee were deeply disappointed.

Condo leaseholders own their units, but not the land under them. The 1991 leasehold conversion law forces land owners to sell them the land.

"At the very least what should be done is consider the contractual obligations the city has entered into to the people who obligated themselves to the conversion process," the attorney for the Kahala Beach Apartment residents, Joachim Cox, said.

Cox sued this week in behalf of lessees at Kahala Beach Apartments in the process of converting to fee. Lessees of the Admiral Thomas Condominium trying to convert sued Tuesday.

Councilman Charles Djou tried unsuccessfully to amend the bill to allow lessees in the process to complete their conversions.

"The problem for the taxpayers is the City Council is inviting a lawsuit that necessarily does not need to occur," Djou said.

More than 70 people signed up to testify, many of them were from large Hawaiian land trusts.

"The negative impact on social programs that help people far outweigh the benefits to a handful of lessees," Kamehameha Schools Chief Executive Officer Dee Jay Mailer said.

Since the conversion bill was passed in 1991 more than 22,000 residents have converted their apartments to fee.