STAND. COM. REP. NO. 65

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 1280

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fifth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2009

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committees on Higher Education and Energy and Environment, to which was referred S.B. No. 1280 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT MAKING AN APPROPRIATION FOR THE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII,"

 

beg leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose of this measure is to appropriate funds to the University of Hawaii for a study relating to beach erosion at Kailua beach.

 

     Comments on this measure were submitted by the University of Hawaii at Manoa Environmental Center, University of Hawaii Sea Grant Extension Service, Sierra Club Hawaii Chapter, and one individual.

 

     Your Committees find that there is an existing planning effort being conducted by the University of Hawaii Sea Grant College Program for Kailua Beach, which is funded by the Department of Land and Natural Resources.  The Kailua Beach and Dune Management Plan is designed to produce place-based beach and dune management recommendations for ensuring conservation of Kailua Beach during the twenty-first century.  The planning effort will develop a site-specific plan to account for sea-level rise, erosion trends, and community development patterns along the beach, with the goal of identifying innovative beach management approaches for Kailua and to serve as a template for place-based management on other Hawaii beaches.

 

 

     Your Committees support the approach in this amended measure, particularly as it builds on work already underway.  However, your Committees would urge the Sea Grant College Program to explore alternative methods of funding, including any funds that may be available in the federal economic stimulus package.

 

     Your Committees have amended this measure accordingly, to:

 

     (1)  Reference the Kailua Beach and Dune Management Plan currently being conducted by the University of Hawaii Sea Grant College Program and the Department of Land and Natural Resources;

 

     (2)  Change the expending agency from the University of Hawaii School of Ocean and Earth Sciences to the University of Hawaii Sea Grant College Program; and

 

     (3)  Clarify that the 2010 report to the Legislature is a progress report of the Kailua Beach and Dune Management Plan, and the 2011 report to the Legislature is a final report to include measures that may be adopted in order to manage coastal erosion, sea level rise, and land use development along the shoreline of Kailua.

 

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Higher Education and Energy and Environment that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1280, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1280, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Higher Education and Energy and Environment,

 

____________________________

MIKE GABBARD, Chair

 

____________________________

JILL TOKUDA, Chair