STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2781

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 2922

S.D. 2

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2022

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Ways and Means and Water and Land, to which was referred S.B. No. 2922, S.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO RURAL DISTRICTS,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to facilitate the use of rural district lands.

Specifically, the measure:

(1) Authorizes each county to determine the propriety of allowing a dwelling house on each quarter-acre, rather than each half-acre, of land in rural districts, under certain circumstances; and

(2) Requires and appropriates moneys for the Office of Planning and Sustainable Development to perform a study to assess the rural district framework within the land use law and make recommendations for revisions to rural district policies and permissible uses within the rural district.

Your Committees received written comments in support of this measure from the Office of Planning and Sustainable Development, Hawaii Association of REALTORS, and Land Use Research Foundation of Hawaii.

Your Committees received written comments in opposition to this measure from Kupuna for the Moopuna and four individuals.

Your Committees received written comments on this measure from the Department of Agriculture, Department of Budget and Finance, and Grassroot Institute of Hawaii.

Your Committees find that as state residents are faced with a severe housing shortage, authorizing higher population density in the rural district may increase the supply of housing and reduce the overall cost of housing. Your Committees also find that the measure's proposed study regarding the rural district may prove helpful, as the redefinition and expansion of the rural district may promote better land use management of existing rural settlements, rural centers, and residential dwellings engaged in subsistence or family agriculture, which are not explicitly permitted in the agricultural district.

Your Committees have amended this measure by:

(1) Changing the appropriation for the study from $250,000 to an unspecified amount;

(2) Changing the effective date to July 1, 2050, to facilitate further discussion on the measure; and

(3) Making technical nonsubstantive changes for purposes of clarity, consistency, and style.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Ways and Means and Water and Land that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and

purpose of S.B. No. 2922, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2922, S.D. 2.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Ways and Means and Water and Land,

________________________________ DONOVAN M. DELA CRUZ, Chair

________________________________ LORRAINE R. INOUYE, Chair