STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2171

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 2758

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 Public Safety, Intergovernmental, and Military Affairs and Housing, to which was referred S.B. No. 2758 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HOUSING,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to establish forty-five day approval deadlines for affordable housing projects seeking district boundary amendments for land areas of fifteen acres or less under the jurisdiction of the counties, as well as forty-five day approval deadlines for the Hawaii Community Development Authority.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Office of the Governor; Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism; Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corporation; County of Hawai‘i Planning Department; Hawaii Community Development Authority; Building Industry Association Hawaii; Chamber of Commerce Hawaii; Drug Policy Forum of Hawaii.

Your Committees find that the State's need for more affordable housing is an immediate and ever-growing concern that must be addressed. Of the approximately 64,700 housing units that are forecast to be needed between 2015 and 2025, nearly eighty-nine percent, or about 57,500 units, will be needed by those classified as lower income groups. Given the overwhelming need for affordable housing, your Committees find that it is essential that satisfactory affordable housing projects be approved in a timely manner. Consequently, your Committees find that establishing a forty-five day approval process for affordable housing projects seeking district boundary amendments for land areas of fifteen acres or less within the jurisdiction of the counties could expedite governmental approvals, save time and money, and encourage timely affordable housing development.

Your Committees have amended this measure by:

(1) Removing language that would have made the Hawaii Community Development Authority subject to the proposed expedited time limit for approvals;

(2) Changing the effective date to July 1, 2050, to encourage further discussion; and

(3) 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 Public Safety, Intergovernmental, and Military Affairs and Housing that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2758, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2758, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Public Safety, Intergovernmental, and Military Affairs and Housing,

________________________________ WILL ESPERO, Chair

________________________________ CLARENCE K. NISHIHARA, Chair