STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2620

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 2322

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2026

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Water, Land, Culture and the Arts and Agriculture and Environment, to which was referred S.B. No. 2322 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENTS,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to require that an environmental assessment be conducted and an environmental impact statement be prepared for any proposed use within historic properties considered significant or recognized as a traditional cultural property.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs.

Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Department of Land and Natural Resources and Office of Planning and Sustainable Development.

Your Committees find that the State needs to consider historic sites when developing and executing projects and adapt its environmental review process by focusing efforts on evaluating impacts to significant historic sites. Existing law triggers the State's environmental review process for historic sites only when they are designated in the National or Hawaii Register of Historic Places. This measure would expand protection and accountability for historically and culturally significant sites in the State by augmenting which sites may trigger the environmental review process.

Your Committees note the concern raised in testimony by the Department of Land and Natural Resources that the identification of historic sites referenced within the proposed language of this measure are repetitive and found in additional locations within the Hawaii Administrative Rules and chapter 6E, Hawaii Revised Statutes. Your Committees also note the concern raised in testimony by the Office of Hawaiian Affairs that certain terms used in this measure do not align with applicable state administrative rules and federal law. Amendments to this measure are therefore necessary to address these concerns.

Accordingly, your Committees have amended this measure by:

(1) Replacing the term "historic site" with "historic property" to correspond with chapter 6E, Hawaii Revised Statues;

(2) Deleting language that would have required an environmental assessment for actions that propose any use within any historic property considered significant pursuant to section 284-6(b)(5), chapter 13, of the Hawaii Administrative Rules;

(3) Inserting language that requires an environmental assessment for actions that propose any use within a historic property that has important value to the native Hawaiian people or to another ethnic group of the State due to associations with cultural practices once carried out, or still carried out, at the property or due to association with traditional beliefs, events, or oral accounts, these associations being important to the group's history and cultural identity;

(4) Deleting language that would have required an environmental assessment for actions that propose any use within any historic property recognized as a traditional cultural property by the State Historic Division pursuant to section 6E-42, Hawaii Revised Statutes;

(5) Inserting language that requires an environmental assessment for actions that propose any use within any historic property determined to be eligible as a traditional cultural property or place on the National Register of Historic Places;

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

(7) 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, Land, Culture and the Arts and Agriculture and Environment that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2322, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2322, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Judiciary.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Water, Land, Culture and the Arts and Agriculture and Environment,

________________________________ MIKE GABBARD, Chair

________________________________ CHRIS LEE, Chair