STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2324

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 2035

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2024

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Water and Land, to which was referred S.B. No. 2035 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE LAND USE COMMISSION,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to reform the decision-making process of the Land Use Commission.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii.

Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Land Use Commission, Office of Hawaiian Affairs, and Hawaii's Thousand Friends.

Your Committee finds that delays in permitting and approvals substantially increase the time and cost to build new housing, leading to uncertainty and expense that disincentivizes development. Your Committee further finds that the State's average delay in the permit and approval process is three times the length of the national mean. This measure will expedite the permit and approval process and help address the State's excessive permit and approval times.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Retaining statutory language requiring the Land Use Commission to hear a petition within one hundred eighty days of its proper filing and to render a decision on a petition within three hundred sixty-five days of its proper filing;

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

(3) Inserting an effective date of July 1, 2050, to encourage further discussion; and

(4) 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 S.B. No. 2035, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2035, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Judiciary.

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

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LORRAINE R. INOUYE, Chair