STAND. COM. REP. NO. 419

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 1044

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2015

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committee on Transportation, to which was referred S.B. No. 1044 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO TRANSPORTATION,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

 

     (1)  Require the Director of Transportation to submit to the Legislature an annual report detailing compliance with the complete streets policy and principles during the prior fiscal year, including certain specified information;

 

     (2)  Require the Department of Transportation to establish and publish performance standards with measurable benchmarks reflecting the capacity for all users to travel with appropriate safety and convenience along roadways under the jurisdiction of the State;

 

     (3)  Require that complete streets policies of the State apply to new construction, reconstruction, repaving, operations, and maintenance activities, and accordingly require the Department of Transportation to create a checklist of certain specified information; and

 

     (4)  Require the Director of Transportation to provide training for the Department of Transportation's design, operations, and maintenance staff in complete streets policies, principles, and implementation procedures that may be applicable to the performance of their duties.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Transportation; Kauai Path, Inc.; Blue Planet Foundation; Maui Electric Bikes; Maui Bicycling League; Cycle Manoa; AARP Hawaii; Peoples Advocacy for Trails for Hawaii; Hawaii Bicycling League; and thirty-nine individuals.  Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and three individuals.

 

     Act 54, Session Laws of Hawaii 2009, enacted the complete streets law, codified as section 264-20.5, Hawaii Revised Statutes, to require the State Department of Transportation and the county transportation departments to adopt a complete streets policy that seeks to reasonably accommodate convenient access and mobility for all users of the public highways within their respective jurisdictions, including pedestrians, bicyclists, transit users, motorists, and persons of all ages and abilities.

 

     Your Committee finds that clarification of the complete streets policy is necessary to assure its proper implementation and ensure its effectiveness as intended.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Requiring the Department of Transportation's initial report to the Legislature to be submitted by December 31, 2016;

 

     (2)  Clarifying that the measurable performance standards and benchmarks to be included in the Department of Transportation's report are as established in conjunction with the MAP-21 process applicable to each project;

 

     (3)  Requiring the Department of Transportation to post on its website the preliminary complete streets checklist and accompanying documentation within sixty days of completion of the checklist rather than within thirty days;

 

     (4)  Deleting the requirement that the Department of Transportation's complete streets checklist receive public comment;

 

     (5)  Requiring counties to consider the complete streets law when adopting or amending county land use ordinances; and

 

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

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Transportation that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1044, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1044, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Transportation,

 

 

 

____________________________

CLARENCE K. NISHIHARA, Chair