STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2326

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 2165

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 Water and Land and Hawaiian Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 2165 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HISTORIC PRESERVATION,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate funds to the State Historic Preservation Division of the Department of Land and Natural Resources to inventory historic properties and burial sites located in the State and conduct relevant archaeological surveys necessary to compile the inventory.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Land and Natural Resources; Historic Hawaiʻi Foundation; Hoʻomana Pono, LLC; Society for Hawaiian Archaeology; and six individuals.

Your Committees received comments on this measure from one individual.

Your Committees find that comprehensive statewide inventories of historic properties and burial sites are critical to managing these properties and sites in Hawaii, but the State Historic Preservation Division of the Department of Land and Natural Resources does not receive sufficient funding to create and maintain comprehensive, accurate inventories. The absence of comprehensive statewide inventories delays project planning since developers, planners, and state and county agencies lack vital information regarding the locations of historic properties and burial sites, thereby delaying projects or impacting their planning processes. This measure will expedite development projects by appropriating funds to the Department of Land and Natural Resources to inventory historic properties and burial sites in the State, collect data on burial site locations, and conduct an archaeological surface survey.

Your Committees have amended this measure by:

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

(2) 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 Water and Land and Hawaiian Affairs that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2165, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2165, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Water and Land and Hawaiian Affairs,

________________________________ MAILE S.L. SHIMABUKURO, Chair

________________________________ LORRAINE R. INOUYE, Chair