Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2003

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Water, Land Use, and Hawaiian Affairs and Tourism and Culture, to which was referred H.B. No. 221 entitled:

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this bill is to restore Waikiki Beach, one of this State's most important images, by appropriating funds for a sand replenishment project to widen the beach between the North Kuhio Beach groin and the Kapahulu storm drain.

The Hawaii Tourism Authority, Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii, Hawaii Business Roundtable, Hawaii Hotel Association, and the Waikiki Improvement Association testified in support of this measure. The Department of Land and Natural Resources supported the intent of this bill.

According to a 2002 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers study, erosion loss at Waikiki is estimated to result in an annual loss of nearly $21,000,000 in State and local taxes.

Your Committees have amended this bill by:

Over the past decades, the State and the county have periodically replenished the sand at various locations along Waikiki Beach. Due to the topography and the currents, this sand has migrated to other areas along the shoreline to benefit certain hotels. Given this trend, more thought should be given to considering the feasibility of requiring the beneficiary hotels to participate in beach replenishment costs.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Water, Land Use, and Hawaiian Affairs and Tourism and Culture that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 221, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 221, H.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Finance.