STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3191

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: H.B. No. 2358

H.D. 1

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2024

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Housing and Agriculture and Environment, to which was referred H.B. No. 2358, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENTS,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to exempt certain affordable housing projects from environmental impact statement requirements.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands; County of Hawaiʻi Office of Housing and Community Development; one member of the Maui County Council; Affordable Housing Connections LLC; Stanford Carr Development, LLC; NAIOP Hawaii; and Building Industry Association-Hawaii.

Your Committees received testimony in opposition to this measure from Livable Hawaii Kai Hui, Pele Lani Farm LLC, Sierra Club of Hawaiʻi, Kauai Climate Action Coalition, Hawaii's Thousand Friends, Free Access Coalition, Sierra Club, and one hundred twenty-five individuals.

Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Office of Planning and Sustainable Development and Department of the Attorney General.

Your Committees find that the State is currently undergoing a housing shortage. Your Committees also find that significant delays in the regulatory processes of constructing urgently needed housing exasperate this issue. Therefore, this measure will bypass certain aspects of the regulatory process to speed up the production of housing within the State.

Your Committees have amended this measure by:

(1) Deleting language that would have established the provisions of this measure "notwithstanding any provision of chapter 343, Hawaii Revised Statutes, to the contrary";

(2) Specifying that certain affordable housing projects shall be considered as a general type of action eligible for exemption pursuant to sections 11-200-1 through 11-200-15, Hawaii Administrative Rules;

(3) Amending the definition of "affordable housing project"; and

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

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Housing and Agriculture and Environment that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2358, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2358, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Housing and Agriculture and Environment,

________________________________ MIKE GABBARD, Chair

________________________________ STANLEY CHANG, Chair