HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.B. NO.

117

TWENTY-SIXTH LEGISLATURE, 2011

H.D. 2

STATE OF HAWAII

 

 

 

 

 

 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

 

RELATING TO SPECIAL MANAGEMENT AREAS.

 

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

 


     SECTION 1.  The legislature finds that the costs of purchasing and importing construction materials, along with the costs of labor, have risen at a rate that has increased overall costs of projects that in the past may have been viewed as unsubstantial or minor.  Further, the increase in the number of these minor projects, and the shortage of personnel that the various county planning departments are experiencing, have significantly slowed down the review and processing of minor projects within the special management areas of the counties.

     The purpose of this Act is to establish a new threshold of ten thousand square feet of structural area for the review of minor projects within the special management areas of the counties to allow the expeditious processing and approval of these minor projects that have been stalled.

     SECTION 2.  Section 205A-22, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by amending the definitions of "development", "special management area minor permit", and "special management area use permit" to read as follows:

     ""Development" means any of the uses, activities, or operations on land or in or under water within a special management area that are included below:

     (1)  Placement or erection of any solid material or any gaseous, liquid, solid, or thermal waste; 

     (2)  Grading, removing, dredging, mining, or extraction of any materials;

     (3)  Change in the density or intensity of use of land, including but not limited to the division or subdivision of land;

     (4)  Change in the intensity of use of water, ecology related thereto, or of access thereto; and

     (5)  Construction, reconstruction, demolition, or alteration of the size of any structure.

     "Development" does not include the following:

     (1)  Construction of a single-family residence that is not part of a larger development or which does not exceed ten thousand square feet of floor area;

     (2)  Repair or maintenance of roads and highways within existing rights-of-way;

     (3)  Routine maintenance dredging of existing streams, channels, and drainage ways;

     (4)  Repair and maintenance of underground utility lines, including but not limited to water, sewer, power, and telephone and minor appurtenant structures such as pad mounted transformers and sewer pump stations;

     (5)  Zoning variances, except for height, density, parking, and shoreline setback;

     (6)  Repair, maintenance, or interior alterations to existing structures;

     (7)  Demolition or removal of structures, except those structures located on any historic site as designated in national or state registers;

     (8)  Use of any land for the purpose of cultivating, planting, growing, and harvesting plants, crops, trees, and other agricultural, horticultural, or forestry products or animal husbandry, or aquaculture or mariculture of plants or animals, or other agricultural purposes;

     (9)  Transfer of title to land;

    (10)  Creation or termination of easements, covenants, or other rights in structures or land;

    (11)  Subdivision of land into lots greater than twenty acres in size;

    (12)  Subdivision of a parcel of land into four or fewer parcels when no associated construction activities are proposed; provided that any land which is so subdivided shall not thereafter qualify for this exception with respect to any subsequent subdivision of any of the resulting parcels;

    (13)  Installation of underground utility lines and appurtenant aboveground fixtures less than four feet in height along existing corridors;

    (14)  Structural and nonstructural improvements to existing single-family residences, where otherwise permissible;

    (15)  Nonstructural improvements to existing commercial structures; and

    (16)  Construction, installation, maintenance, repair, and replacement of civil defense warning or signal devices and sirens;

provided that whenever the authority finds that any excluded use, activity, or operation may have a cumulative impact, or a significant environmental or ecological effect on a special management area, that use, activity, or operation shall be defined as "development" for the purpose of this part.

     "Special management area minor permit" means an action by the authority authorizing development [the valuation of which is not in excess of $125,000 and which] that has no substantial adverse environmental or ecological effect, taking into account potential cumulative effects.

     "Special management area use permit" means an action by the authority authorizing development [the valuation of which exceeds $125,000 or which] that may have a substantial adverse environmental or ecological effect, taking into account potential cumulative effects."

     SECTION 3.  This Act does not affect rights and duties that matured, penalties that were incurred, and proceedings that were begun, before its effective date.

     SECTION 4.  Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken.  New statutory material is underscored.

     SECTION 5.  This Act shall take effect on July 1, 3000.



 

Report Title:

Special Management Areas; Use Permit

 

Description:

Replaces the value of a development to determine whether a minor permit or use permit is required in a coastal special management area with a criteria based on the size of development.  Effective July 1, 3000.  (HB117 HD2)

 

 

 

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