STAND. COM. REP. NO. 139

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2023

RE: H.B. No. 1385

H.D. 1

Honorable Scott K. Saiki

Speaker, House of Representatives

Thirty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2023

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Water & Land, to which was referred H.B. No. 1385 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO PUBLIC LANDS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to:

(1) Authorize the designation of areas or regions of public lands classified as commercial and industrial; hotel, apartment, and motel; or resort, and the establishment and implementation of guidelines for the redevelopment of the areas or regions that will:

(A) Modernize the policies for the management of public lands in the designated area;

(B) Establish a plan for the designated area, including district-wide improvements, that is coordinated with state and county land use and planning policies; and

(C) Implement asset and property management concepts that can optimize income from the properties and evolve in response to changing principles of property administration; and

(2) Designate the public lands on the Waiakea peninsula on the island of Hawaii as the Waiakea Peninsula Redevelopment District.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from one member of the Hawai‘i County Council, HPM Building Supply, and one individual. Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Department of Land and Natural Resources and League of Women Voters of Hawaii. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of Budget and Finance.

Your Committee finds that this measure would help revitalize the Waiakea peninsula, which forms part of the premier tourism district in East Hawaii. Many of the properties in the Waiakea peninsula are in disrepair or obsolete. Your Committee further finds that proper redevelopment of the area would benefit the community and businesses of the Hilo area.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Specifying that the Governor must select within sixty days of receipt of the applicable lists the members of the planning committee whose names were submitted for selection by the President of the Senate and Speaker of the House of Representatives;

(2) Specifying that the Governor must select the remaining members of the planning committee within sixty days after the designation of a redevelopment district;

(3) Clarifying the time by which the Board of Land and Natural Resources must review and approve the recommended redevelopment plan of the planning committee and submit the report to the Governor and the Legislature, with a request for the required appropriations and bond authorization;

(4) Changing the expending agency for the Waiakea Peninsula Redevelopment District Revolving Fund from the Department of Land and Natural Resources to the Waiakea Peninsula Redevelopment District Planning Committee;

(5) Changing its effective date to June 30, 3000, to encourage further discussion; and

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

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Water & Land that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1385, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1385, H.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Judiciary & Hawaiian Affairs.

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

____________________________

LINDA ICHIYAMA, Chair