STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2616

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 237

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. 237 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO ADAPTATION PATHWAYS PLANNING,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

(1) Expand the authority of the State and counties to develop adaptation pathways plans to modify and relocate infrastructure away from critically threatened areas to locations outside sea level rise and coastal flooding exposure areas; and

(2) Appropriate funds.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Land and Natural Resources, University of Hawaiʻi Sea Grant College Program, University of Hawaiʻi Climate Resilience Collaborative, and Hawaiʻi Reef and Ocean Coalition.

Your Committees received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Kahana Bay Steering Committee.

Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Office of Planning and Sustainability.

Your Committees find that as sea level rises due to climate change, adaptation measures are best accomplished via adaptation pathways with triggers for successive adaptation actions over time. State and county agencies currently use known tools, such as beach and dune restoration, temporary shoreline armoring, and flood mitigation techniques on a parcel-by-parcel and ad hoc basis. Your Committees further find that while the Office of Planning and Sustainable Development is currently using funding from the federal government to study policy and economic solutions to encourage relocation away from coastal hazards, additional measures are needed to address infrastructure that is at-risk from future sea level rise. Therefore, this measure will assist furthered efforts relating to climate change mitigation techniques to prepare the State for the continued effects of climate change.

Your Committees have amended this measure by:

(1) Inserting a blank appropriation amount;

(2) Updating dates to reflect the current legislative session;

(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.

Your Committees note that this measure, as amended, contains an unspecified appropriation amount. Should your Committee on Ways and Means choose to deliberate on this measure, your Committee respectfully requests that it consider inserting an appropriation amount of $1,000,000.

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. 237, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 237, 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, Land, Culture and the Arts and Agriculture and Environment,

________________________________ MIKE GABBARD, Chair

________________________________ CHRIS LEE, Chair