STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1594

                                   Honolulu, Hawaii
                                                     , 1999

                                   RE:  H.B. No. 1183
                                        H.D. 2
                                        S.D. 2




Honorable Norman Mizuguchi
President of the Senate
Twentieth State Legislature
Regular Session of 1999
State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred H.B.
No. 1183, H.D. 2, S.D. 1, entitled: 

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

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this bill is to provide for the restoration
of public beach lands.

     In particular, this bill:

     (1)  Authorizes the Board of Land and Natural Resources to
          do all things necessary, useful, and convenient to
          restore beach land;

     (2)  Requires the Department of Land and Natural Resources
          to prepare and revise plans for the restoration of
          beach lands in the State, which are to guide the board
          in identifying those beach lands in need of restoration
          that have been degraded as a result of natural or human
          actions;

     (3)  Authorizes the board to lease and develop public lands
          within the state coastal zone management area under the
          board's jurisdiction to generate revenues for beach
          restoration;


 
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     (4)  Creates a beach restoration special fund for the
          planning and development of beach restoration projects
          and providing grants to the counties, nongovernmental
          organizations, and the University of Hawaii for the
          restoration of beach lands and research and engineering
          studies to support beach restoration projects; and

     (5)  Appropriates funds to the department for the
          restoration of beach lands, including funds to conduct
          a beach restoration engineering design and analysis of
          the Honokowai Beach Park, the Kaaawa Beach Park, and
          the Sacred Falls shoreline.

     Your Committee finds that there is an immediate need to
control coastal erosion and beach loss.  Many of Hawaii's coastal
areas are experiencing erosion rates exceeding one foot per year,
and nearly twenty-five per cent of the sandy beaches on Oahu, and
possibly as much as thirty per cent of Maui beaches, have been
lost or severely narrowed over the past seventy years due to
erosion.  Given the current trends of rising global sea levels
and increased coastal development, coastal erosion is expected to
continue to be an environmental, societal, cultural, and economic
concern in the foreseeable future.  Your Committee finds that
this bill will assist in providing for the restoration of public
beach lands in those instances in which such restoration is
considered to benefit the people of the State.

     To facilitate further discussion on the funding necessary to
carry out the purposes of this measure, your Committee has
amended this bill by replacing the sums appropriated with blank
amounts and changing the effective date to July 1, 2999, to
promote continuing discussions on this issue.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your
Committee on Ways and Means that is attached to this report, your
Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No.
1183, H.D. 2, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it
pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1183,
H.D. 2, S.D. 2.


 
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                                 Respectfully submitted on behalf
                                 of the members of the Committee
                                 on Ways and Means,



                                 ________________________________
                                 CAROL FUKUNAGA, Co-Chair



                                 ________________________________
                                 ANDREW LEVIN, Co-Chair

 
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