STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2254

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 2834

       S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2016

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Housing, to which was referred S.B. No. 2834 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE DWELLING UNIT REVOLVING FUND,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to authorize the creation of regional state infrastructure improvement subaccounts within the dwelling unit revolving fund and the use of the dwelling unit revolving fund to provide loans and grants to finance regional state infrastructure improvements in areas of planned growth.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism; Office of Planning; Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corporation; Hawaii Public Housing Authority; Hawai‘i Association of REALTORS; Chamber of Commerce Hawaii; and Building Industry Association of Hawaii.  Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs.

     Your Committee finds that orderly and planned infrastructure construction is the foundation for planned population growth and desirable communities.  Infrastructure construction should be coordinated and timed or phased with planned development.  Adequate infrastructure to accommodate future growth would provide livable communities with a desirable quality of life, make possible strategically situated affordable housing near jobs, and allow necessary infrastructure capacity to support development.

     Your Committee further finds that infrastructure capacity must be increased to accommodate higher densities in and around the transit corridor.  While this problem is most evident on Oahu, the neighbor islands also suffer from lack of infrastructure capacity to accommodate future growth.  It is necessary to assist all counties, in accordance with an orderly and predictable plan for increasing infrastructure capacity, to better utilize existing areas for planned growth and mitigate impacts to areas that are appropriate for growth.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

     (1)  Inserting language to include the facilitation of complete streets and smart growth improvements as infrastructure improvements for which the Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corporation shall make grants or loans to state agencies, counties, or private developers; and

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

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Housing that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2834, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2834, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Housing,

________________________________

BREENE HARIMOTO, Chair