Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2006

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Housing and Intergovernmental Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 3000 entitled:

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to implement the recommendations of the Joint Legislative Housing and Homeless Task Force with regard to government approvals and permitting for affordable housing.

Specifically, this measure:

Testimony in support of the measure was received from the Land Use Research Foundation of Hawaii and Hawaii Reserves, Inc. The Housing and Community Development Corporation of Hawaii and the Land Use Commission supported the intent of the measure. The Sierra Club Hawaii Chapter submitted testimony in opposition.

Your Committees find that the expedited permitting process for affordable housing authorized under section 201G-118, Hawaii Revised Statutes, has had only limited success, because applications for affordable housing projects must be negotiated with reviewing agencies before they can be deemed complete, and there is no time limit for this process. Shortening the length of the approvals process will assist in reducing the overall development costs of affordable housing projects.

Your Committees have amended this measure to delete the provision limiting imposition of conditions on an approved project or boundary change to those conditions necessary for health and safety, and to delete the requirement that the Land Use Commission amend its rules accordingly. Your Committees have also made technical, nonsubstantive amendments for clarity and style.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Housing and Intergovernmental Affairs that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 3000, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 3000, S.D. 1, and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.