STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1414

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2005

RE: H.B. No. 1442

H.D. 2

S.D. 2

 

 

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2005

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs, to which was referred H.B. No. 1442, H.D. 2, S.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO LATERAL PUBLIC ACCESS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to mandate that the counties adopt ordinances that require land subdividers or developers to connect existing or proposed access points to the shoreline with lateral public shoreline access as a condition of final subdivision approval.

Testimony in support of this measure was submitted by the Department of Land and Natural Resources, the Sierra Club-Hawaii Chapter, and Life of the Land. The Land Use Research Foundation of Hawaii, the Hawaii Resort Developers Conference, and the Hawaii Association of Realtors testified in opposition to the measure. The Department of Planning and Permitting for the City and County of Honolulu commented on the measure.

This measure is designed to address issues relating to public access to the shoreline on the neighbor islands by requiring the connection of existing or proposed access points to the shoreline with lateral public access along a shoreline or coastline.

Your Committee has amended this measure by making the public access requirements discretionary as opposed to mandatory on the part of counties with a population under 500,000.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1442, 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. 1442, H.D. 2, S.D. 2.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs,

____________________________

COLLEEN HANABUSA, Chair