STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2337

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 2377

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Ninth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2018

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committees on Housing and Public Safety, Intergovernmental, and Military Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 2377 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO PLANNED COMMUNITIES,"

 

beg leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to require the counties to designate an agency to inform the public and hold a hearing when lands are proposed for sale and intended to be used for a purpose other than as proposed as part of a master plan for a community.

 

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Oahu County Committee on Legislative Priorities of the Democratic Party of Hawaii and one individual.  Your Committees received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Department of Planning and Permitting of the City and County of Honolulu.

 

     Your Committees find that in master planned communities, sometimes developers fail to develop plots of land as originally planned.  For example, in central Oahu, a section of land in a master planned community was originally designated to be a golf course, but the developer could not complete the project due to financial constraints and the land was sold and is currently being used as farm land.  Many residents were confused and frustrated, as there was no notification of the land being sold or the development plan being changed.  By requiring a public hearing when changes in the master plan occur, this measure will provide the neighboring public an opportunity to be better informed of what is happening in their community.

 

     Your Committees have amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Inserting an effective date of July 1, 2050, to encourage further discussion; and

 

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

 

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Housing and Public Safety, Intergovernmental, and Military Affairs that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2377, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2377, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Health.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Housing and Public Safety, Intergovernmental, and Military Affairs,

 

________________________________

CLARENCE K. NISHIHARA, Chair

 

________________________________

WILL ESPERO, Chair