STAND. COM. REP. 369

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2003

RE: H.B. No. 192

H.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2003

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Water, Land Use, and Hawaiian Affairs, to which was referred H.B. No. 192 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO ACCRETED LANDS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this bill is to effectuate the State's constitutional mandate, relating to accreted lands (i.e., lands formed by the gradual accumulation of land on a beach or shore along the ocean by action of natural forces), that all public natural resources are held in trust by the State for the benefit of the people by:

(1) Expanding the definition of "public lands" to include accreted land along the ocean;

(2) Requiring the Office of Environmental Quality Control (OEQC) to inform the public of any application for the registration of land by accretion filed with the Land Court of the State;

(3) Restricting quiet title actions and filing of Land Court applications, relating to the registration of accreted lands along the ocean, to the State and private property owners whose eroded land has been restored by accretion; and

(4) Clarifying that accreted lands are state lands, except as otherwise provided by law.

Life of the Land and a concerned individual submitted testimony in support of this bill. A concerned individual testified in support of this measure with suggested amendments. The Department of Land and Natural Resources and OEQC submitted comments on this bill.

Article XI, section 1 of the State Constitution provides that all public natural resources are held in trust by the State for the benefit of the people. Your Committee believes that the State must act decisively to protect the people's right to use and enjoy the state's beaches against those private property owners seeking to increase their original titled-lands by accretion.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Clarifying that only accreted lands that have not otherwise been awarded are public lands;

(2) Deleting the requirement that OEQC inform the public of any application for the registration of land by accretion filed with the Land Court of the State; and

(3) Clarifying that applications for the registration of land by accretion and actions to quiet title to land by accretion pending at the time of the effective date of this bill shall be processed under the law existing at the time the applications and actions were filed with the court.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Water, Land Use, and Hawaiian Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 192, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 192, H.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Water, Land Use, and Hawaiian Affairs,

 

____________________________

EZRA R. KANOHO, Chair