STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2259

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 2436

       S.D. 1

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2014

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committees on Economic Development, Government Operations and Housing, Transportation and International Affairs, and Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 2436 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO COMMUNITY PLANNING,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to establish the Transit-oriented Development Advisory Committee to make recommendations about sustainable development projects close to transit.

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation, The Pacific Resource Partnership, and General Contractors Association of Hawaii.  Your Committees received testimony in opposition to this measure from the City and County of Honolulu Department of Planning and Permitting.  Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism.

     Your Committees find that the careful coordination of transit and development is critical, so that each can optimally enhance the other.  Transit-oriented development presents an opportunity not only for "a project at a station", but for a full-fledged transit-centered community.  A transit corridor that offers an advantageous mix of uses can be used to integrate a number of separate activity nodes, particularly when the various uses are close together, are easily accessible, and support each other.

     Your Committees have amended this measure by:

     (1)  Amending the language to allow the Transit-Oriented Development Advisory Committee to select the chair of the committee;

     (2)  Inserting language to require the Transit-Oriented Development Advisory Committee to take into consideration the City and County of Honolulu Department of Planning and Permitting's neighborhood transit-oriented development plans; and

     (3)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Economic Development, Government Operations and Housing, Transportation and International Affairs, and Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2436, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2436, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Economic Development, Government Operations and Housing, Transportation and International Affairs, and Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs,

____________________________ J. KALANI ENGLISH, Chair	____________________________ DONOVAN M. DELA CRUZ, Chair
	____________________________ WILL ESPERO, Chair