HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.B. NO.

1586

TWENTY-SEVENTH LEGISLATURE, 2014

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 

 

 

 

 

 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

 

RELATING TO TRANSPORTATION.

 

 

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

 


     SECTION 1.  In 2009, the legislature adopted senate concurrent resolution no. 132, S.D. 1, which established the construction industry task force (task force) to determine the economic value of the construction industry in Hawaii.  As directed in the concurrent resolution, the task force was charged with developing a series of recommendations to stimulate the construction industry and create new jobs in the local construction industry.  Unfortunately, to date, many of the task force's recommendations have yet to be enacted by the legislature.  The intent of this Act is to enact and implement one of the recommendations of the task force in an effort to support the local construction industry.

     The legislature finds that it is necessary to provide the airports and highways divisions of the department of transportation with the same type of county exemptions from shoreline management area permits that is provided to the department of transportation harbors division.  This exemption is necessary to facilitate the airports and highways divisions' progress in areas that are crucial to a projects' footprint and to containing construction costs.

     The purpose of this Act is to extend to the airports and highways division of the department of transportation the same exemptions from county special management area permit requirements that are provided to the harbors division.

     SECTION 2.  Section 205A-22, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by amending the definition of "development" to read as follows:

     ""Development" means any of the uses, activities, or operations on land or in or under water within a special management area that are included below:

     (1)  Placement or erection of any solid material or any gaseous, liquid, solid, or thermal waste;

     (2)  Grading, removing, dredging, mining, or extraction of any materials;

     (3)  Change in the density or intensity of use of land, including but not limited to the division or subdivision of land;

     (4)  Change in the intensity of use of water, ecology related thereto, or of access thereto; and

     (5)  Construction, reconstruction, demolition, or alteration of the size of any structure.

     "Development" does not include the following:

     (1)  Construction or reconstruction of a single-family residence that is less than seven thousand five hundred square feet of floor area and is not part of a larger development;

     (2)  Repair or maintenance of roads and highways within existing rights-of-way;

     (3)  Routine maintenance dredging of existing streams, channels, and drainage ways;

     (4)  Repair and maintenance of underground utility lines, including but not limited to water, sewer, power, and telephone and minor appurtenant structures such as pad mounted transformers and sewer pump stations;

     (5)  Zoning variances, except for height, density, parking, and shoreline setback;

     (6)  Repair, maintenance, or interior alterations to existing structures;

     (7)  Demolition or removal of structures, except those structures located on any historic site as designated in national or state registers;

     (8)  Use of any land for the purpose of cultivating, planting, growing, and harvesting plants, crops, trees, and other agricultural, horticultural, or forestry products or animal husbandry, or aquaculture or mariculture of plants or animals, or other agricultural purposes;

     (9)  Transfer of title to land;

    (10)  Creation or termination of easements, covenants, or other rights in structures or land;

    (11)  Final subdivision approval; provided that in counties that may automatically approve tentative subdivision applications as a ministerial act within a fixed time of the submission of a preliminary plat map, unless the director takes specific action, a special management area use permit if required, shall be processed concurrently with an application for tentative subdivision approval or after tentative subdivision approval and before final subdivision approval;

    (12)  Subdivision of land into lots greater than twenty acres in size;

    (13)  Subdivision of a parcel of land into four or fewer parcels when no associated construction activities are proposed; provided that any land that is so subdivided shall not thereafter qualify for this exception with respect to any subsequent subdivision of any of the resulting parcels;

    (14)  Installation of underground utility lines and appurtenant aboveground fixtures less than four feet in height along existing corridors;

    (15)  Structural and nonstructural improvements to existing single-family residences, where otherwise permissible;

    (16)  Nonstructural improvements to existing commercial structures; [and]

    (17)  Construction, installation, maintenance, repair, and replacement of civil defense warning or signal devices and sirens;

    (18)  Planning, design, and construction of structures and improvements to land to be used for airport purposes, authorized by the department of transportation pursuant to section 261-4; and

    (19)  Planning, design, and construction of all structures and improvements to land to be used for state or county highway purposes, authorized by the department of transportation pursuant to section 264-7;

provided that whenever the authority finds that any excluded use, activity, or operation may have a cumulative impact, or a significant environmental or ecological effect on a special management area, that use, activity, or operation shall be defined as "development" for the purpose of this part."

     SECTION 3.  Section 261-4, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by amending subsection (c) to read as follows:

     "(c)  Structures and improvements.  [All] Notwithstanding any law or provision to the contrary, structures and improvements to land, to be used for airport purposes[, may be]:

     (1)  May be planned, designed, and constructed by the department[.] without the approval of county agencies;

     (2)  Shall be exempt from county permitting requirements; and

     (3)  Shall be exempt from special management area permitting requirements under chapter 205A."

     SECTION 4.  Section 264-7, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:

     "§264-7  Permits, fees, etc.  (a)  Any person or government agency desiring the permit required by section 264-6 shall apply for a permit on a form prescribed by the director of transportation.  Any permit issued shall be conditioned upon the adherence of the applicant to the requirements of sections 264-8 and 264-9; provided that on awarding any contract for the construction, reconstruction, maintenance or repair of any state highway or federal-aid highway project, the director of transportation or the director's authorized representative shall ascertain whether the work to be done by the terms of that contract will require the contractor, the contractor's employees, or the contractor's agents to engage in any of the activities enumerated in section 264-6(1) and (2) and, if one or more such activities is likely to be required, shall issue the permit required by section 264-6, waiving the fee requirements imposed by subsection (b) of this section.

     (b)  The director, subject to chapter 91, shall establish a fee schedule for the issuance of the permit.  The fee schedule established shall be calculated to provide revenues sufficient to defray any expenses the department of transportation may incur in connection with the permit under sections 264-6 to 264-12.  An applicant for a permit shall pay the applicable fee, provided that the director may waive the fee payable when the director determines that the work to be done will either improve the highway or otherwise be of benefit to the State; and provided further that no fee shall be required where the only work to be done is the setting of poles and guys to carry overhead wires.

     (c)  Notwithstanding any law or provision to the contrary, all structures and improvements to land to be used for state or county highway purposes:

     (1)  May be planned, designed, and constructed by the appropriate state or county department without the approval of county agencies;

     (2)  Shall be exempt from any county permitting requirements; and

     (3)  Shall be exempt from special management area permitting requirements under chapter 205A."

     SECTION 5.  Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken.  New statutory material is underscored.

     SECTION 6.  This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

 

INTRODUCED BY:

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Report Title:

Construction Industry Task Force; Special Management Area Permits; Airports; Highways; Exemptions

 

Description:

Exempts improvements to land to be used for airport purposes, authorized by the department of transportation, and for state and county highways, authorized by the appropriate state or county agency, from county approval and permitting requirements and from the definition of "development" for special management area permitting purposes.

 

 

 

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