STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2396

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 3036

       S.D. 1

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2014

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committees on Water and Land and Higher Education, to which was referred S.B. No. 3036 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO BEACH MANAGEMENT FOR THE NORTH SHORE OF OAHU,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate funds to the University of Hawaii sea grant college program to conduct a study and create a North Shore beach management plan for the North Shore of Oahu.

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Land and Natural Resources, Department of Transportation, University of Hawai‘i System, Kamehameha Schools, and eleven individuals.  Your Committees received comments on this measure from two individuals.

     Your Committees find that long-term protection of the northwest-facing North Shore beaches from Haleiwa to Kahuku, which are subject to a common wave regime and share common beach erosion characteristics, requires a comprehensive assessment and modern management plan that recognizes the risks of climate change and sea level rise.  The large number of government, business, private, and community entities involved in the North Shore would benefit from participating in the development and implementation of a comprehensive beach management plan for this vulnerable area.

     In 2010, the University of Hawaii sea grant college program successfully produced a beach and dune management plan for Kailua Beach, which provided an extensive analysis of the current state of this important beach and recommended management measures for federal, state, and local government, as well as community partners, in response to threats such as climate change and sea level rise.  This study serves as a useful prototype for the implementation of beach management plans at other locations and demonstrates the effectiveness of location-specific beach management policies and practices, which the North Shore would greatly benefit from.

     Your Committees find that the time for studies has since long passed and the time for actual planning is here.  Your Committees are mindful that planning should be based on past studies, and testimony indicated that there is a plethora of past studies on the issue of erosion and sediment transport.  Your Committees find that in order to expedite the planning, the focus should be on a smaller, highly used area of Sunset Beach to Waimea Bay.

     Your Committees note that many years ago, Hawaiians warned of the dangers of building on the shoreline and urged that building occur mauka of the highway.  The results of ignoring this admonition are evident in this measure.

     Your Committees have amended this measure by:

     (1)  Requiring the beach management plan to cover the area from Sunset Beach to Waimea Bay;

     (2)  Deleting references to "study";

     (3)  Deleting references to bike path planning, although the University of Hawaii may include this in the plan;

     (4)  Deleting references to the green sea turtle;

     (5)  Deleting section 4, as it is unnecessary;

     (6)  Adding recommendations of the Department of Land and Natural Resources and University of Hawaii regarding the scope of the plan; and

     (7)  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 and Land and Higher Education that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 3036, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 3036, 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 and Land and Higher Education,

____________________________ BRIAN T. TANIGUCHI, Chair

____________________________ MALAMA SOLOMON, Chair