Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2001

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Water, Land, Energy and Environment, to which was referred S.B. No. 981 entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to require a vote by a simple majority of the members of the Board of Land and Natural Resources present at a meeting for any decision on land use permits in the conservation district.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Land and Natural Resources, Hawaii's Thousand Friends, Life of the Land, and Sierra Club, Hawaii Chapter. The Land Use Research Foundation of Hawaii and Hawaiian Electric Company submitted testimony in opposition.

Your Committee finds that under current law, if the board renders no decision on a conservation district use application (CDUA) within the one hundred eighty-day required processing period, the application is automatically approved. Current law also requires four affirmative votes for an action to be valid.

Your Committee further finds that the Circuit Court has interpreted these two requirements to mean that unless four of the six board members vote against a CDUA within the time limit, the CDUA is automatically approved. As a result, applicants have been able to proceed with projects even if the board has voted three-to-two or three-to-one to deny the application.

Your Committee finds that this measure would provide the board with some flexibility, thus preserving in all cases the board's stated intention in a decision on a CDUA. Your Committee has amended this measure to add the language "and qualified to vote" in order to resolve the problem of the number of voting members when a member is excused from a vote.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Water, Land, Energy and Environment that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 981, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 981, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary.