Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2005

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Transportation and Government Operations and Water, Land, and Agriculture and Intergovernmental Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 1595 entitled:

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to repeal the automatic permit approval law set forth in section 91-13.5, Hawaii Revised Statutes.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the University of Hawaii Environmental Center, Life of the Land, Sierra Club, Protect Ohana, and Ilio'ulaokalani Coalition. Testimony in opposition was received from the Department of Land and Natural Resources, Land Use Research Foundation of Hawaii, and Building Industry Association-Hawaii. Comments were submitted from the Public Utilities Commission.

Your Committees find that the automatic permit approval law was intended to expedite the permit approval process. Delays are most commonly caused by a heavy caseload or by a failure to obtain a quorum for board voting. The law was adopted to ensure that the administrative failure to timely consider a permit did not cause the applicant to suffer lengthy and costly delays.

Automatic approvals are most controversial in cases involving construction projects because of the potential detrimental effect on the environment. Developers incur mounting costs with longer delays, yet automatically approving their permits can have a seriously negative impact on the public.

Your Committees believe that this measure needs further discussion to balance the competing interests to reach a fair and reasonable result. Therefore, your Committees have amended this measure by changing the effective date to July 1, 2020.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Transportation and Government Operations and Water, Land, and Agriculture and Intergovernmental Affairs that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1595, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1595, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs.