STAND. COM. REP. 2444

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2004

RE: S.B. No. 2478

S.D. 1

 

 

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2004

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Education and Transportation, Military Affairs, and Government Operations and Water, Land, and Agriculture, to which was referred S.B. No. 2478 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO IMPACT FEES,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to authorize the Department of Education to assess and collect impact fees by intergovernmental agreement with a county, as fair share contributions of developers for the construction of state public school facilities.

Your Committees received testimony in support of the measure from the Department of Education, Land Use Research Foundation of Hawaii, and Hawaii Leeward Planning Conference. Your Committees received testimony in opposition from two Hawaii County Council Members. Your Committees received comments from the Honolulu Department of Planning and Permitting and Schuler Homes.

Your Committees find that impact fees provide a fair and balanced means for developers to offset some of the infrastructure costs that will be necessitated by major developments. A number of concerns were raised in the course of the hearing, which your Committees have integrated into the measure. Your Committees note that they are included in the spirit of responsiveness to the concerns raised and do not represent the result of sustained deliberation by your Committees.

Your Committees have amended the measure by allowing:

(1) The county in which the fee is collected to retain the impact fee in their own account;

(2) Counties to grant exemptions for impact fees for affordable housing development as appropriate;

(3) Extension of the ten year time limit for the expenditure or encumbrance of impact fees transferred to the state educational facilities impact fee trust fund account, upon agreement with the developer.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Education and Transportation, Military Affairs, and Government Operations and Water, Land, and Agriculture that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2478, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2478, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Education and Transportation, Military Affairs, and Government Operations and Water, Land, and Agriculture,

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CAL KAWAMOTO, Chair

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NORMAN SAKAMOTO, Chair

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LORRAINE R. INOUYE, Chair