STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1291

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    H.B. No. 1950

       H.D. 1

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fourth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2007

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committees on Intergovernmental and Military Affairs and Water, Land, Agriculture, and Hawaiian Affairs, to which was referred H.B. No. 1950, H.D. 1, entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HOUSING,"

 

beg leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose of this measure is to amend chapter 201H, Hawaii Revised Statutes, housing development provisions to allow county councils to approve certain expedited government housing development projects with modifications, and to extend the county and Land Use Commission approval or disapproval window for these projects from forty‑five days to a currently unspecified number of days.

 

     The Maui County Council, the Vice Chair of the Maui County Council, and the Realtors Association of Maui, Inc. submitted testimony in support of this measure.  The Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corporation, the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, the Hawaii County Office of Housing and Community Development, the City and County of Honolulu Department of Community Services, the Kauai County Housing Agency Offices of Community Assistance, and the Land Use Research Foundation of Hawaii submitted testimony in opposition to this measure.

 

     Your Committees find that this measure is intended to amend chapter 201H, Hawaii Revised Statutes, to include certain provisions that would permit the counties to approve certain types of housing projects with or without modification that were apparently left out when the State's Housing Law was recently recodified.

 

     In addition, the measure would extend the time that a county legislative body has to approve a project and that the Land Use Commission has to approve a land use boundary change for the project.  Numerous testifiers stated that the proposed extension of time would result in additional costs and actually serve as a disincentive to private developers of affordable housing.

 

     It is your Committees' intent to encourage further discussion of this matter.  Therefore, your Committees have amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Changing the effective date from upon its approval to July 1, 2020; and

 

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

 

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Intergovernmental and Military Affairs and Water, Land, Agriculture, and Hawaiian Affairs that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1950, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1950, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Affordable Housing.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Intergovernmental and Military Affairs and Water, Land, Agriculture, and Hawaiian Affairs,

 

____________________________

RUSSELL S. KOKUBUN, Chair

 

____________________________

LORRAINE R. INOUYE, Chair