Report Title:

Public Access

Description:

Prohibits gated communities that deny public access to any coastal shoreline or mountain or inland areas used for recreational or cultural purposes.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.B. NO.

2167

TWENTY-SECOND LEGISLATURE, 2004

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 


 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

RELATING TO PUBLIC ACCESS.

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that the courts of this State and the legislature have consistently supported and ensured the rights of the public to access the shoreline and inland mountain areas of the State for recreational and cultural purposes. However, the proliferation of private communities with gates, guard stations, and private roadways has increasingly prevented and denied public access to certain shoreline and inland areas.

The purpose of this Act is to ensure that public access to shoreline and inland areas for recreational and cultural purposes remains unfettered by the development of private gated communities.

SECTION 2. Section 46-6.5, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:

"[[]§46-6.5[]] Public access. (a) Each county shall adopt ordinances [which] that shall require a subdivider or developer, as a condition precedent to final approval of a subdivision, in cases where public access is not already provided, to dedicate land for public access and parking by right-of-way or easement for pedestrian travel from a public highway or public streets to the land below the high-water mark on any coastal shoreline[,] and to dedicate land for public access and parking by right of way from a public highway to inland areas [in the mountains where there are existing facilities] customarily used by the public for hiking, hunting, fruit-picking, ti-leaf sliding, and other recreational or cultural purposes[, and] or where there are existing mountain trails.

(b) These ordinances shall be adopted within one year of May 22, 1973.

(c) Upon the dedication of land for a right-of-way, required by this section and acceptance by the county, the county concerned shall thereafter assume the cost of improvements for and the maintenance of the right-of-way, and the subdivider shall accordingly be relieved from such costs.

(d) Within one year after July 1, 2004, each county shall adopt ordinances that shall prohibit the development of subdivisions consisting of more than five acres that provide for private gated communities with gates, guard stations, or private roadways that would deny public access to any shoreline area or any inland area customarily used by the public for recreational or cultural purposes.

[(d)] (e) For the purposes of this section, "subdivision" means any land [which] that is divided or is proposed to be divided for the purpose of disposition into six or more lots, parcels, units, or interests and also includes any land whether contiguous or not, if six or more lots are offered as part of a common promotional plan of advertising and sale.

[(e)] (f) The right-of-way and parking areas shall be clearly designated on the final map of the subdivision or development.

[(f)] (g) This section shall apply to the plan of any subdivision or development [which] that has not been approved by the respective counties prior to July 1, 1973."

SECTION 3. This Act shall not apply to any final subdivision approval by any county issued prior to the adoption of an ordinance implementing this Act.

SECTION 4. Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 5. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

INTRODUCED BY:

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