Report Title:

Endangered Species

Description:

Expands the definition of landowners eligible for coverage under safe harbor agreements and habitat conservation plans to all state and county lands and private lease lands.

THE SENATE

S.B. NO.

1417

TWENTY-SECOND LEGISLATURE, 2003

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 


 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

RELATING TO ENDANGERED SPECIES.

 

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

SECTION 1. Section 195D-2, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by adding a new definition to be appropriately inserted and to read as follows:

""Government-owned lands" means lands owned by the State or county, or lands owned by any political subdivision of the State."

SECTION 2. Section 195D-2, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by amending the definition of "landowner" to read as follows:

""Landowner" means [the owner of the fee simple interest in private land and may include public lands limited to the following projects:

(1) North-South Road, Ewa, Oahu, project no. HWY-0-01-92 as described in the draft environmental assessment, September 1998; and the project described as Kapolei Parkway, Ewa, Oahu, project no. E-13 of the Oahu Regional Transportation Plan adopted by the Oahu metropolitan planning organization on April 6, 2001;

(2) Cyanotech Corporation, incidental take permit and habitat conservation plan as described in the Federal Register, January 2, 2002 (volume 67, number 1); and

(3) Kealakehe planned community proposed by the housing and community development corporation of Hawaii and the department of Hawaiian home lands on lands within tax map key numbers 7-4-8: parcel 17, 7-4-8: portion 12, 7-4-8: parcel 43, and 7-4-19: portion 43.]

an owner of land or any estate or interest in that land when acting with the fee owner's consent."

SECTION 3. Section 195D-23, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by amending subsection (a) to read as follows:

"(a) After approval of a habitat conservation plan or safe harbor agreement, or issuance of an incidental take license pursuant to this chapter, no agencies or departments of the State, in order to protect a threatened or endangered species, may impose any new requirements or conditions on, or modify any existing requirements or conditions applicable to, a landowner or successor to the landowner, to mitigate or compensate for changes in the conditions or circumstances of any species or ecosystem, natural community, or habitat covered by the plan, agreement, or license unless:

(1) The landowner, or the landowner's successor, expressly consents to the requirement, condition, or modification;

(2) The board has found, in accordance with those special procedures agreed to by the board and the landowner, or in the absence of any special procedures, in accordance with those procedures that govern the findings generally, that:

(A) The requirement, condition, or modification does not impose any additional restriction on any parcel of land or body of water available for use or development under the plan or agreement; and

(B) The requirement, condition, or modification will not increase the cost to the landowner or other parties to the plan or agreement of implementing the plan or agreement;

(3) The department is prepared to exercise its authority to:

(A) Pay the landowner for the costs of any new requirement or condition or any modification of any existing requirement or condition, which costs may be determined through binding arbitration; and

(B) Take any other action to ensure that any party to the plan or agreement is not, without the party's consent, unduly burdened by the requirement, condition, or modification, in whichcase the department shall implement that necessary requirement, condition, or modification upon committing to pay the costs, mitigate the actions, or undertake the action;

(4) The board has revoked the approval of the plan or rescinded the agreement in accordance with section 195D-21(d) or 195D-22(c); or

(5) Extraordinary new circumstances or information indicate that failure to modify the plan or agreement is likely to appreciably reduce the likelihood of the survival or recovery of any threatened or endangered species in its natural habitat. If, on private lands, additional mitigation measures are subsequently deemed necessary to provide for the conservation of a species that was otherwise adequately covered under the terms of a habitat conservation plan, safe harbor agreement, or incidental take license as a result of extraordinary circumstances, the primary obligation for executing mitigation measures shall rest with the State, or the federal government with its consent, and not with the private landowner."

SECTION 4. Section 195D-24, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:

"[[]§195D-24[]] Confidentiality. All information submitted to the board by a landowner pursuant to section 195D-21 or 195D-22, in the course of preparing a habitat conservation plan or safe harbor agreement[,] for private lands, respectively, shall be kept confidential until notice of the proposed plan or agreement is published in the periodic bulletins of the office of environmental quality control. The precise location of any threatened or endangered species may remain confidential."

SECTION 5. Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 6. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

INTRODUCED BY:

_____________________________

BY REQUEST