STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2010

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 2334

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Ninth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2018

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Government Operations, Water and Land, and Public Safety, Intergovernmental, and Military Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 2334 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO PLANNING,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to require the State and counties to incorporate predictions of sea level rise and other climate change hazards and mitigation opportunities, including the findings of the "Hawaii Sea Level Rise Vulnerability and Adaptation Report" prepared by the Hawaii Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation Commission, into applicable plans, strategies, and mapping.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Office of Planning, State of Hawaii; University of Hawai‘i System; Sierra Club of Hawai‘i; Ho‘omana Pono, LLC; Hawaiian Civic Club of Honolulu; West Hawaii CHC; and six individuals. Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Department of Land and Natural Resources and Hawaii Emergency Management Agency.

Your Committees find that prudent pre-disaster planning and efficient post-disaster responses are essential to the State's functioning in the wake of an unexpected disaster event. Therefore, it is necessary for the State's emergency management officials to consider and analyze credible data that could assist in developing efficient and workable solutions for any future post-disaster recovery. One area of obvious future concern is sea level rise and other climate change hazards that could drastically impact the State and cause massive disruption. The Hawaii Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation Commission has already made findings relating to sea level rise and other climate change hazards in its "Hawaii Sea Level Rise Vulnerability and Adaptation Report" and those findings should be incorporated into applicable state and county plans, strategies, and mapping.

However, your Committees also find that the threat of sea level rise and other climate change hazards are such that consideration of such factors should be made at all levels of planning within the State. It is not enough that emergency management and hazard mitigation plans alone consider sea level rise and other climate change hazards. Therefore, your Committees find that the provisions of this measure would be more effective if made part of the Hawaii State Planning Act.

Accordingly, your Committees have amended this measure by adding the provisions of this measure as a new section to chapter 226, Hawaii Revised Statutes, instead of chapter 127A, Hawaii Revised Statutes.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Government Operations, Water and Land, and Public Safety, Intergovernmental, and Military Affairs that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2334, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2334, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

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

________________________________ KARL RHOADS, Chair	________________________________ DONNA MERCADO KIM, Chair
	________________________________ CLARENCE K. NISHIHARA, Chair