STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2297

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 3059

       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. 3059 entitled:

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

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to allow any state or county agency to designate public and private lands for the construction of indigenous architecture, exempt from state and county laws and rules but under the supervision of experts in indigenous architecture and construction.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from Ho‘omana Pono, LLC.  Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Department of Land and Natural Resources, Department of Planning and Permitting of the City and County of Honolulu, and Department of Agriculture.  Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of the Attorney General and one individual.

     Your Committee finds that allowing indigenous architecture to be built on more land in the State will increase the utility and value of indigenous Hawaiian architectural knowledge and encourage the preservation and application of Hawaiian culture in the community.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

     (1)  Clarifying that the lands that a state or county agency may designate for the construction of indigenous architecture must be under the agency's stewardship or control;

     (2)  Requiring the supervision of a certified hale builder for the construction of any indigenous architecture;

     (3)  Adding definitions of "certified hale builder" and "indigenous architecture"; and

     (4)  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. 3059, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 3059, 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,

________________________________

MAILE S.L. SHIMABUKURO, Chair