STAND. COM. REP. NO.124

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2003

RE: S.B. No. 704

 

 

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2003

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Water, Land, and Agriculture, to which was referred S.B. No. 704 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO ACCRETED LANDS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to include accreted lands in the definition of state public lands, although allowing a private property owner to file an accretion claim to regain title to the owner's eroded land that has been restored by accretion.

Testimony in support of the measure was submitted by Hawaii's Thousand Friends, Life of the Land, the Sierra Club, a coastal geologist, and a concerned citizen. The Board of Land and Natural Resources submitted comments on the measure.

Your Committee finds that this measure will stop the unlawful taking of public beach land under the guise of fulfilling a nonexistent littoral right supposedly belonging to shorefront property owners. The measure will help protect Hawaii's public lands and fragile beaches.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Water, Land, and Agriculture that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 704 and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Water, Land, and Agriculture,

____________________________

LORRAINE R. INOUYE, Chair