STAND. COM. REP. NO. 272

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 248

       S.D. 1

Honorable Shan S. Tsutsui

President of the Senate

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2011

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committees on Water, Land, and Housing and Public Safety, Government Operations, and Military Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 248 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO FEES,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

     (1)  Prohibit the imposition of impact fees in urban land use districts; and

     (2)  Require the Department of Transportation to charge nominal fees for the disposal of easements within, and access rights along, state highways.

     Your Committees received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Department of Transportation.

     Your Committees find that local jurisdictions charge impact fees to developers to offset the costs of off-site capital improvements that are necessitated by and benefit the new development.  However, off-site capital improvements are frequently unnecessary in densely populated urban areas, where infrastructure already exists to support new developments.  This measure restricts the monetary value that can be assessed by the Department of Transportation for disposal of easements and rights of way to a nominal amount.  Your Committees learned through testimony that this provision may jeopardize the bulk of federal funds provided for state highway projects.

     Therefore, your Committees have amended this measure by:

(1)  Eliminating the provision restricting assessments by the Department of Transportation to nominal amounts; and

(2)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Water, Land, and Housing and Public Safety, Government Operations, and Military Affairs that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 248, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 248, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Water, Land, and Housing and Public Safety, Government Operations, and Military Affairs,

____________________________ WILL ESPERO, Chair

____________________________ DONOVAN M. DELA CRUZ, Chair