STAND. COM. REP. NO.362

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2003

RE: S.B. No. 1404

S.D. 1

 

 

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2003

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Transportation, Military Affairs, and Government Operations, to which was referred S.B. No. 1404 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO IMPACT FEES,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to authorize the counties to assess impact fees to help pay for state highway improvements that serve new or more intensive development, and to create a new special fund to hold impact fee revenues.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Transportation (DOT), the Estate of James Campbell, and the Land Use Research Foundation of Hawaii. The Department of Permitting and Planning of the City and County of Honolulu submitted testimony in opposition to this measure.

Your Committee finds that new development of land has a tremendous impact on existing roadways. New development leads to more motor vehicles using our roadways, necessitating increased repair and maintenance as well as traffic mitigation measures.

Your Committee supports the institution of impact fees on developers to help defray the cost of highway improvements brought on by development. Impact fees are more predictable and equitable than case-by-case permit exactions, and more acceptable to the public than using solely public funds. Also, unless they are used for the exact purpose for which they were collected, impact fees must be returned to the developer.

Therefore, your Committee supports this measure as an appropriate balance between the right of private entities to develop their land, and the resultant need of the State to maintain and improve our roadways.

Your Committee amended this measure to designate the DOT as the expending agency for the special fund created to hold impact fees.

Your Committee also made several technical, nonsubstantive amendments to this measure for purposes of style, clarity, and accuracy.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Transportation, Military Affairs, and Government Operations that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1404, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1404, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Transportation, Military Affairs, and Government Operations,

____________________________

CAL KAWAMOTO, Chair