HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.B. NO.

2634

TWENTY-EIGHTH LEGISLATURE, 2016

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 

 

 

 

 

 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

 

relating to affordable housing.

 

 

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

 


     SECTION 1.  The legislature finds that the State is experiencing a dire statewide housing shortage, particularly for the lower and middle income levels.  The State and counties are currently many thousands of units behind demand, and the deficit is expected to grow in the foreseeable future.

     The consequences of little to no housing inventory are well known in the State's communities: most housing is priced well beyond the means of the average resident, Hawaii's homeless population continues to grow, rental housing is difficult to find, multiple generations and multiple families live under the same roof, single family homes are converted into multifamily homes, and more.  The hardship on the community is tremendous and it is incumbent upon the State to aid in providing housing as a fundamental human need.

     Many factors have contributed to the State's housing crisis.  Among them is the difficult, expensive, and time consuming process to gain the required land use entitlements needed to start housing construction.  In the State Land Use System Review, Draft Report, dated May 2015, the office of planning found that the approval process from the beginning of the environmental assessment or environmental impact statement process to the start of construction takes approximately seven years.  This is approximately the length of an entire real estate cycle.  The state process alone, even for moderately sized projects, may take over two years.  Legal challenges along any of the steps may add years to the process.

     The report also notes that a primary concern is that the environmental impact statement law, state district boundary amendment procedures, county entitlement processes, and shoreline management area where applicable, are often redundant, with the same issues being examined multiple times.  Issues, such as traffic impacts to state and county transportation facilities, schools, water, agriculture, archaeology, natural hazards, wastewater, runoff, and other concerns, are addressed at each level of review.

     The long, multi-tiered process adds to the price of housing due to holding costs, and because it requires the services of attorneys, expert witnesses, consultants, and others.  Most of these services are repeatedly required at each level of the entitlement process, adding significant costs to each unit that are ultimately passed on to a buyer.

     Approximately thirty years ago, through Act 230, Session Laws of Hawaii 1985, the counties were granted authority over district boundary amendments for fifteen acres or less.  At that time, the counties had limited capacity to do long-range planning.  Since then, however, the capacity and sophistication of the counties' planning functions have grown significantly and the counties are now competent to make significant land use decisions.  Each county has a full staff of professional planners and has adopted laws and methodologies to develop and approve long-range land use plans that are consistent with state law and best planning practices.  The counties now use state-of-the-art planning tools, such as geographical information systems, and are fully capable of assessing their own housing and economic needs, as well as analyzing environmental impacts.

     It has been discussed that the greater than fifteen-acre threshold is necessary because the land use commission process is necessary to protect and account for state interests.  Such interests would include but not be limited to state transportation facilities, school facilities, water availability, agricultural impacts, and historic and cultural resources and prevention.

     The counties now, by their local laws and by practice, address state interests as a matter of course during their respective entitlement processes.  Both individual applications and county-initiated entitlement processes are routinely circulated to state agencies for their review and comment.  Similar to land use commission orders, state agency review is most often addressed on a local level through conditions of zoning or as conditions permits.

     Because the counties engage in sophisticated planning processes, and their local processes can and do account for state interests, the counties should have the authority to make district boundary amendments to up to one hundred acres.  For many smaller projects, this will shorten the entitlement process by approximately two and a half years.  The intent is not to replace the land use commission function as most petitions for district boundary amendments are greater than one hundred acres.  The state land use commission should continue to process district boundary amendments where there is the greatest potential for impacts on state interests.

     The purpose of this Act is to shorten the time needed to entitle housing projects by giving the counties authority to make district boundary amendments for lands with an area of one hundred acres or less.

     SECTION 2.  Section 205-3.1, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by amending subsections (a), (b), and (c) to read as follows:

     "(a)  District boundary amendments involving lands in the conservation district, land areas greater than [fifteen] one hundred acres, or lands delineated as important agricultural lands shall be processed by the land use commission pursuant to section 205-4.

     (b)  Any department or agency of the State, and department or agency of the county in which the land is situated, or any person with a property interest in the land sought to be reclassified may petition the appropriate county land use decision-making authority of the county in which the land is situated for a change in the boundary of a district involving lands [less than fifteen] of one hundred acres or less presently in the rural and urban districts and lands [less than fifteen] of one hundred acres or less in the agricultural district that are not designated as important agricultural lands.

     (c)  District boundary amendments involving land areas of [fifteen] one hundred acres or less, except as provided in subsection (b), shall be determined by the appropriate county land use decision-making authority for the district and shall not require consideration by the land use commission pursuant to section 205-4; provided that such boundary amendments and approved uses are consistent with this chapter[.] and that state interests are addressed in the district boundary amendment.  The appropriate county land use decision-making authority may consolidate proceedings to amend state land use district boundaries pursuant to this subsection, with county proceedings to amend the general plan, development plan, zoning of the affected land, or such other proceedings.  Appropriate ordinances and rules to allow consolidation of such proceedings may be developed by the county land use decision-making authority."

     SECTION 3.  Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken.  New statutory material is underscored.

     SECTION 4.  This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

 

INTRODUCED BY:

_____________________________

 

 


 


 

Report Title:

District Boundaries; Counties

 

Description:

Grants authority to counties to make district boundary amendments for lands with an area of one hundred acres or less.

 

 

 

The summary description of legislation appearing on this page is for informational purposes only and is not legislation or evidence of legislative intent.