STAND. COM. REP. NO. 433
Honolulu, Hawaii
RE: S.B. No. 696
S.D. 1
Honorable Colleen Hanabusa
President of the Senate
Twenty-Fourth State Legislature
Regular Session of 2007
State of Hawaii
Madam:
Your Committees on Education and Intergovernmental and Military Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 696 entitled:
"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO SCHOOL IMPACT FEES,"
beg leave to report as follows:
The purpose of this measure is to establish a process for determining and assessing school impact fees for financing new or expanding existing public schools or facilities when new residential subdivisions are contemplated.
Comments on the measure were submitted by the Land Use Research Foundation of Hawaii. Testimony in opposition to this measure was submitted by the Department of Education.
Your Committees find that the School Impact Fee Working Group was established pursuant to Act 246, Session Laws of Hawaii 2005, and was tasked with, among other things, submitting proposed legislation to the Legislature on its recommendations for determining school impact fees within identified school impact districts. The School Impact Fee Working Group transmitted its report to the Legislature in December 2006, which contained recommendations for two separate approaches. This measure represents the School Impact Fee Working Group's recommendation for requiring school impact fees to be calculated based on the appropriate student generation rates for each growth area. This approach presents a more narrowly tailored option for better assessing the true cost impact for each school impact district by considering the relationship between the amount of the school impact fees and the actual impact of the new housing. However, because detailed student generation data may not be readily available for many areas of the State, use of this approach could present challenges.
Your Committees recognize and appreciate the collaborative effort and work that the School Impact Fee Working Group has provided, but understands that this measure is a work-in-progress, which requires further discussion and analysis to determine what is the best approach for determining the manner by which to calculate school impact fees and how that approach should be implemented.
Accordingly, your Committees have amended this measure by:
(1) Clarifying the intent of the measure to require developers to provide the land for new schools and a percentage of the cost of building new classrooms needed to serve new residential developments;
(2) Clarifying the definition of a "greenfield school impact district" to encompass any largely undeveloped, formerly agricultural area where anticipated growth will create the need for new schools in the area to serve the new housing development;
(3) Removing the requirement that payment of assessment impact fees shall be a condition precedent to the issuance of a building permit;
(4) Clarifying that prior to the designation of a greenfield school impact district, the Department of Education shall analyze the need for the construction of one or more schools in the area, not limited to only elementary and high schools;
(5) Requiring the Department of Education to analyze the need to construct or expand school facilities in the area within the next twenty-five years, instead of ten years, prior to the designation of a non-greenfield school impact district;
(6) Clarifying that the owner or developer of property, if requested by the Department of Education, shall designate the proposed area of land to be dedicated for one or more schools in determining whether the dedication of land or payment of a fee in lieu is required;
(7) Clarifying that, when land dedication is required, the land shall be conveyed to the State upon completion of the subdivision improvements and any offsite infrastructure necessary to serve the land;
(8) Clarifying that the fee in lieu of land dedication for residential subdivisions of fifty acres or more shall be based on the value of the improved land, as if contained in a single parcel, zoned for residential use, suitable for school construction, and serviced by roads, utilities, and drainage;
(9) Requiring the Department of Education to pay the developer a per-acre amount for the excess acreage at a per acre value if the Department of Education needs a parcel larger than the size the developer is required to dedicate;
(10) Clarifying that school impact fees shall be based on the costs per student of new classroom construction in the Honolulu assessment district;
(11) Requiring the Department of Education to update the costs per student of new classroom construction every three years, assuming twenty-five students per classroom in an eight-classroom building with appurtenant restrooms;
(12) Providing that the updated cost per student shall replace the cost applicable to classroom buildings built in 2006;
(13) Deleting the calculated elementary, middle, and high school costs per student in the Honolulu assessment district;
(14) Specifying that the calculation of revenue credits shall be made in the manner used to determine revenue credits in the Hawaii School Impact Fee Study; and
(15) Making technical, nonsubstantive changes for purposes of clarity and style.
As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Education and Intergovernmental and Military Affairs that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 696, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 696, 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 Intergovernmental and Military Affairs,
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____________________________ LORRAINE R. INOUYE, Chair |
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____________________________ NORMAN SAKAMOTO, Chair |
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