STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2582

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 2270

       S.D. 2

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2014

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Judiciary and Labor, to which was referred S.B. No. 2270, S.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO COUNTY ZONING,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to confer on a property owner a private right of action and allows the property owner to file suit directly in circuit court to enforce zoning violations on neighboring properties that directly affect them.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from three individuals.  Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Mayor, County of Maui; Planning Department, County of Kauai; Department of Planning and Permitting, City and County of Honolulu; Planning Department, County of Hawaii; Department of Planning, County of Maui; Hawaii Association of REALTORS; and Hawaii Rifle Association.

     Your Committee finds that counties may not be able to take action to investigate and enforce every operation that violates county zoning ordinances.  The lack of enforcement of zoning laws imposes a burden on neighboring property owners, which is an unfair imposition on their quality of life.  This measure seeks to improve the application of section 46-4, Hawaii Revised Statutes, and provide aggrieved property owners with a private right of action to enforce zoning violations in court, without having to wait until relevant issues are resolved by an administrative body first or exhaust administrative remedies first.

     Your Committee notes the concerns raised in written testimony in opposition to this measure that allowing a property owner a private right of action to enforce zoning violations has the potential to create situations that may pit neighbor against neighbor and could lead to abuse by neighbors.  Thus, your Committee believes that the scope of the private right of action be limited to enforce zoning violations related to transient vacation rentals on neighboring properties.

     Accordingly, your Committee has amended this measure by:

     (1)  Limiting the scope of a property owner's private right of action to the enforcement of zoning violations related to transient vacation rentals on a neighboring property that directly affect the property owner;

     (2)  Allowing the court to award attorney's fees and other reasonable expenses incurred to the prevailing party of the private right of action; and

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

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary and Labor that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2270, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2270, S.D. 2.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary and Labor,

____________________________

CLAYTON HEE, Chair