STAND. COM. REP. NO. 523

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 1549

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 S.B. No. 1549 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE DEPARTMENT OF LAND AND NATURAL RESOURCES,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate funds to the Department of Land and Natural Resources for operating costs and personnel to manage certain trailheads as part of the Na Ala Hele Trail and Access Program.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Land and Natural Resources, Sierra Club Hawaii Island Group, and fifteen individuals.

Your Committee finds that visitors are attracted to Hawaii because of the State's natural beauty, natural resources, cultural resources, and historical sites. However, many of these sites are overwhelmed by the sheer number of visitors and residents who flock to these sites during their stay in Hawaii. Your Committee finds that with the dramatic increase in trail use, intensified by residents who escaped to the outdoors during the COVID—19 pandemic and visitors exposed to the trails via social media influences, additional resources are needed. Your Committee finds that the lack of staffing to address these hotspots leads to residents complaining about blocked driveways, illegal parking on state and county roadways, lack of restroom facilities, constant noise, lack of on-street parking for residential use, use of residential water hoses to clean up, and use of residential yards to gather and unwind from the day's activities. Therefore, this measure appropriates funds to help remedy these issues.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Inserting blank appropriation amounts; and

(2) Inserting an effective date of July 1, 2050, to encourage further discussion.

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 S.B. No. 1549, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1549, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

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

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LORRAINE R. INOUYE, Chair