Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2001

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Economic Development and Business Concerns and Water and Land Use and Energy and Environmental Protection, to which was referred H.B. No. 954 entitled:

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this bill is to clarify the regulatory review and approval process (automatic permit approval) under section 91-13.5, Hawaii Revised Statutes (HRS) by, among other things:

The State Office of Planning, Hawaii Leeward Planning Conference, Land Use Research Foundation, and the Hawaii Business Roundtable testified in support of the bill. The Department of Land and Natural Resources, Public Utilities Commission, Consumer Advocate, Hawaiian Electric Company, Inc., Hawaii Electric Light Company, Maui Electric Company, Limited, The Estate of James Campbell, Hawaii's Thousand Friends, and KAHEA submitted comments on the measure. The Sierra Club, Hawaii Chapter, submitted testimony in opposition to the measure.

Your Committees acknowledged an ongoing and major concern during discussion and from previous legislative sessions regarding various board and commission quorum requirements in relation to automatic permit approval. Under section 91-13.5 (c), HRS, "all issuing agencies shall take action to grant or deny any application for a business or development-related permit, license or approval within the established maximum period of time, or the application shall be deemed approved." Therefore, a tie vote or less than majority vote by board or commission members, or lack of quorum by board or commission members would result in automatic approval of the business or development-related permit, license, or approval, if the deadline passed.

Your Committees note language on the issue contained in H.R. No. 128, H.D. 1, (2000), which requested the Legislative Reference Bureau to conduct a legal review of concerns regarding the automatic permit approval. H.R. No. 128, H.D. 1, states: "[T]he current language of the automatic permit approval statutes may force unintended outcomes from a board or commission . . . [I]f a time for action expires and less than a majority of a board or commission is in support of a permit or license, or a quorum is not maintained, then a permit or license may be automatically granted, even if it failed to garner the required affirmative support for approval . . . . " It is the intent of your Committees that board or commission voting and quorum issues with regard to automatic permit approval be deliberated by the second referral committee of this bill, the House Committee on Consumer Protection and Commerce.

Your Committees have amended the bill by excluding business or development-related permits, licenses, or approvals covered under the following sections, from section 91-13.5, HRS:

Technical, nonsubstantive amendments were also made for clarity and style.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Economic Development and Business Concerns and Water and Land Use and Energy and Environmental Protection that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 954, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 954, H.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Consumer Protection and Commerce.