HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.C.R. NO.	270
TWENTY-FOURTH LEGISLATURE, 2007
STATE OF HAWAII

HOUSE CONCURRENT

RESOLUTION

REQUESTING THE ENVIRONMENTAL COUNCIL TO REPORT TO THE LEGISLATURE ON THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE HAWAII ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION ACT AND RECOMMEND CHANGES.

     WHEREAS, Kuilima Resort Company is proceeding with plans to expand the existing Turtle Bay Resort from five hundred hotel rooms to four thousand hotel and condominium units; and

     WHEREAS, the environmental impact statement for this project was completed in 1985; and

     WHEREAS, the original project plans approved in 1985 included three hotels, one thousand four hundred fifty hotel rooms, and two thousand sixty-three condo units; and

     WHEREAS, Kuilima Resort Company received tentative block subdivision approval on September 29, 2006.  The approval would allow the eight hundred eighty-acre property to be subdivided into five new hotel sites, with a potential for two thousand five hundred hotel rooms, one thousand condominium units, a new interior roadway, a commercial center, four new parks, and several public beach accesses; and

     WHEREAS, much has changed in this area of Oahu since 1985.  For example, a traffic study completed in 2005 by Kuilima Resort Company indicates a future traffic level of two thousand fifty-four vehicles per hour as compared to the current level of nine hundred vehicles per hour near the resort.  Also, the property under development is now home to monk seals, and has also become a nesting area for greater numbers of green sea turtles; and

     WHEREAS, due to the changes in this area since the environmental impact statement was completed, there is now much to study and update before this project should be allowed to proceed, and the community consensus calls for renewed environmental review of the proposed expansion's impacts before proceeding further; and

     WHEREAS, interested parties have filed suit against the City and County of Honolulu, Department of Planning and Permitting, and Kuilima Resort Company to require a supplemental environmental impact statement before the expansion project is allowed to proceed; and

     WHEREAS, the Hawaii Revised Statutes does not specifically address the requirements for obtaining a supplemental environmental impact statement where the impact of a project has potentially changed.  This differs from the National Environmental Policy Act and the California Environmental Quality Act, both of which require supplemental environmental impact statements; now, therefore,

     BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-fourth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2007, the Senate concurring, that the Environmental Council is requested to prepare a report for the Legislature assessing the scope of chapter 343, Hawaii Revised Statutes, and recommend amendments to bring the Hawaii Environmental Protection Act in line with federal and other states' environmental laws, specifically with regard to the use of supplemental environmental impact statements; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the Director of Health, the Director of the Office of Environmental Quality Control, and the Chairperson of the Environmental Council.

OFFERED BY:

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Report Title: 

Requesting the Environmental Council to Report to the Legislature on the Effectiveness of the Hawaii Environmental Protection Act and Recommend Changes