STAND. COM. REP. NO. 330

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 629

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Ninth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2017

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committees on Water and Land and Judiciary and Labor, to which was referred S.B. No. 629 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE LAND USE COMMISSION,"

 

beg leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

 

     (1)  Provide the Land Use Commission with the power to amend, revise, or modify a decision and order granting a district boundary amendment, or fine a petitioner, when the Commission finds that a petitioner or its successors or assigns have not adhered to the conditions imposed by the commission, regardless of whether there has been substantial commencement of use of the land; and

 

     (2)  Define "substantial commencement".

 

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Office of Planning and Land Use Commission.  Your Committees received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Land Use Research Foundation of Hawaii.  Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Department of Permitting and Planning of the City and County of Honolulu.

 

     Your Committees find that providing additional tools to the Land Use Commission (LUC) for enforcing the conditions or requirements of a land use district boundary amendment serves to protect state interests and the public trust.  Currently, the only enforcement mechanism available to the LUC for noncompliance with the conditions or requirements of a district boundary amendment is issuing an order to show cause, which may result in a reversion to the former land use classification.  However, even that mechanism is available only prior to substantial commencement of use of the land.  Furthermore, reversion is not always an appropriate solution.  Your Committees find that providing the LUC with the flexibility to work with petitioners and amend, modify, or vacate conditions, or impose fines, will improve compliance and eliminate the unfair advantages of petitioners who fail to comply with the conditions or requirements imposed with their district boundary amendments.

 

Your Committees have amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Inserting an effective date of March 15, 2094, to encourage further discussion; and

 

     (2)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

 

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Water and Land and Judiciary and Labor that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 629, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 629, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Water and Land and Judiciary and Labor,

 

________________________________

GILBERT S.C. KEITH-AGARAN, Chair

 

________________________________

KARL RHOADS, Chair