STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1221

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: H.B. No. 1091

H.D. 2

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2023

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Water and Land, to which was referred H.B. No. 1091, H.D. 2, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO REAL PROPERTY DISCLOSURES WITHIN SHORELINE AREAS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to require the disclosure of all existing permitted and unpermitted erosion control structures on the parcel, or on state land seaward and adjacent to the parcel, along with the annual coastal erosion rate for the zoning lot in real estate transactions when residential real property lies adjacent to the shoreline.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Land and Natural Resources; Office of Planning and Sustainable Development; University of Hawai‘i Climate Resilience Collaborative and Sea Grant College Program; Hawai‘i Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation Commission; Office of Climate Change, Sustainability and Resiliency of the City and County of Honolulu; Surfrider Foundation Hawai‘i Region; and Hawai‘i Reef and Ocean Coalition. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Hawai‘i Association of REALTORS.

Your Committee finds that through Act 179, Session Laws of Hawaii 2021, the Legislature recognized the existential threat of sea level rise to real property and required that a seller disclose when residential real property lies within a sea level rise exposure area in residential real property transactions. However, your Committee finds that additional disclosures for shoreline properties are necessary to provide purchasers with adequate notice of how quickly the coast is eroding near the property and whether erosion control structures have been built or erected on the parcel, or on state land seaward and adjacent to the parcel. Therefore, this measure accordingly updates the notification requirements under section 508D-15, Hawaii Revised Statutes.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Removing the proposed requirement for a seller to disclose all permitted and unpermitted erosion control structures on state land seaward and adjacent to a parcel;

(2) Amending section 1 to reflect its amended purpose; and

(3) 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 Water and Land that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1091, H.D. 2, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1091, H.D. 2, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Commerce and Consumer Protection.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Water and Land,

________________________________

LORRAINE R. INOUYE, Chair