STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3597

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    H.B. No. 2636

       H.D. 2

       S.D. 2

 

 

 

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2016

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred H.B. No. 2636, H.D. 2, S.D. 1, entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO SOLAR ENERGY FACILITIES,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is regulate the installation of industrial solar energy production equipment in agricultural districts that meet certain criteria.

 

     Specifically, this measure requires a special permit approval from the county planning commission to install solar energy production equipment with a capacity of greater than twenty-five kilowatts on certain lots within an agricultural district of a county with a resident population of greater than one hundred seventy thousand but fewer than five hundred thousand.

 

     Your Committee received written comments in support of this measure from nine individuals.

 

     Your Committee received written comments in opposition to this measure from the Office of Planning and two individuals.

 

     Your Committee received written comments on this measure from the Department of Agriculture.

 

     Your Committee finds that this measure will impose an additional level of scrutiny on the construction of industrial scale solar power generating facilities in certain areas of the State Agricultural District by requiring such projects to obtain a special permit.

     Your Committee acknowledges that the Office of Planning has opposed the narrow and targeted application of this measure and that the Department of Agriculture has strong concerns that the measure could be interpreted as benefiting non-conforming residential uses in the State Agricultural District.  As this measure mores forward, these concerns should be taken into serious consideration as part of the final conference draft.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by changing the effective date to July 1, 2076, to facilitate further discussion on the measure.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Ways and Means that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2636, H.D. 2, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2636, H.D. 2, S.D. 2.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Ways and Means,

 

 

 

________________________________

JILL N. TOKUDA, Chair