STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2296

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 2946

       S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2016

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Hawaiian Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 2946 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO INDIGENOUS HAWAIIAN ARCHITECTURE,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to require each county to adopt ordinances to authorize indigenous native Hawaiian architectural practices and materials in the county's building code for agricultural lands that are to be used for farm operations, including farm worker housing.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from Ho‘omana Pono, LLC; and one individual.  Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Department of Planning and Permitting of the City and County of Honolulu and Department of Agriculture.

     Your Committee finds that utilizing indigenous native Hawaiian architecture for housing will help to preserve the Hawaiian culture and provide communities with low-cost housing alternatives using available local resources.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

     (1)  Adding a reference to Act 222, Session Laws of Hawaii 2007, to section 1; and

     (2)  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 Hawaiian Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2946, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2946, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Water, Land, and Agriculture.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Hawaiian Affairs,

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MAILE S.L. SHIMABUKURO, Chair