STAND. COM. REP. NO.1055

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2003

RE: H.B. No. 1029

H.D. 1

 

 

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2003

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs, to which was referred H.B. No. 1029, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO PERMIT APPROVALS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to repeal the requirement that an agency adopt rules to specify a maximum time in which to grant or deny a business or development permit, license, or approval.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawaii County Planning Department; a Hawaii County Council Member; Sierra Club Hawaii Chapter; Life of the Land; Hawaii's Thousand Friends; and two individuals. Testimony in opposition was received from the Honolulu County Department of Planning and Permitting; The Gentry Companies; The Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii; Hawaii Reserves Inc.; General Contractors Association of Hawaii; Hawaii Construction Industry Association; Princeville Resort Kauai; Hawaii Operating Engineers Industry Stabilization Fund; Plumbers and Fitters Local 675; Hawaii Business Roundtable; The Estate of James Campbell; Land Research Foundation of Hawaii; Contractors Association of Hawaii; and Laborers' International Union of North America Local 368 AFL-CIO.

Your Committee finds that the existing law that deems a permit to be approved if no action is taken by a board within a specified period of time may adversely affect legitimate interests other than that of the owner, developer, or labor entity. Your Committee believes that permits should stand or fall on their own merit and not as a result of an artificial and arbitrary time limitation. Although "automatic approval" may pressure agencies to become operationally more efficient, your Committee finds that agencies should always be expediently processing permit applications.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1029, H.D. 1, and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be referred to the Committees on Transportation, Military Affairs, and Government Operations and Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs,

____________________________

COLLEEN HANABUSA, Chair