STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2536

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 2583

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2022

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Housing and Water and Land, to which was referred S.B. No. 2583 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO PUBLIC LANDS,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to exempt lands set aside by the Governor to the Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corporation from classification as public lands subject to Department of Land and Natural Resources management, provided that the lands are not ceded lands.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corporation. Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Department of Land and Natural Resources.

Your Committees find that the State's complex system of land management can impede efforts to efficiently develop affordable housing. Ensuring that agencies engaged in the development of affordable housing have ready access to lands and are able to build on those lands with minimal restriction from other agencies is essential to the State's efforts to end its housing crisis. However, it is also crucial that state agencies engaged in the development of affordable housing recognize the claims of native Hawaiians over lands in the State. This measure exempts certain lands from management by the Department of Land and Natural Resources to ensure the expedited development of affordable housing, provided that the lands are not ceded lands.

Your Committees have amended this measure by:

(1) Providing that lands no longer needed for housing finance and development purposes shall be returned to the agency from which they were obtained; and

(2) Making a technical, nonsubstantive amendment for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Housing and Water and Land that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2583, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2583, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committees on Ways and Means and Judiciary.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Housing and Water and Land,

________________________________ LORRAINE R. INOUYE, Chair

________________________________ STANLEY CHANG, Chair