STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2289

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 2907

       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 Higher Education and Water and Land, to which was referred S.B. No. 2907 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO LAND TRANSFER,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to transfer certain undeveloped land previously planned for use for the University of Hawaii West Oahu from the University of Hawaii to the Department of Land and Natural Resources.

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Land and Natural Resources and one individual.  Your Committees received testimony in opposition to this measure from the University of Hawaii.

     Your Committees find that in 1999, 991 acres of land were transferred by the State to the University of Hawaii for its planned West Oahu campus.  As these parcels of land have not been developed and the University of Hawaii does not have a plan in place to develop these parcels, your Committees believe ownership should be transferred to the Department of Land and Natural Resources.

     Your Committees have amended this measure by:

     (1)  Inserting the tax map key numbers to properly identify the specific parcels to be transferred from the University of Hawaii to the Department of Land and Natural Resources;

     (2)  Clarifying that the fee title ownership of the specific parcels, rather than the custody and control, shall be transferred from the University of Hawaii to the Department of Land and Natural Resources; and

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

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Higher Education and Water and Land that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2907, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2907, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Higher Education and Water and Land,

____________________________ MALAMA SOLOMON, Chair

____________________________ BRIAN T. TANIGUCHI, Chair