STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2092

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 2757

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2022

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Water and Land, to which was referred S.B. No. 2757 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HISTORIC PRESERVATION,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate funding to the Department of Land and Natural Resources State Historic Preservation Division to expedite development of a comprehensive, complete inventory of historic properties and burial sites located across the State and to conduct relevant archaeological surveys necessary to provide further information for the inventory.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Land and Natural Resources and Society for Hawaiian Archaeology. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of Budget and Finance.

Your Committee finds that comprehensive statewide inventories of historic properties and burial sites are critical to managing and protecting historic properties and grave sites across Hawaii. The Department of Land and Natural Resources State Historic Preservation Division has the responsibility of creating and maintaining inventories. However, as the State Historic Preservation Division currently relies on documentation submitted in support of project reviews and expert individuals who contribute new information to existing databases and inventories, and some historic properties and burial sites are also located in restricted areas, maintaining current, accurate knowledge remains a difficult task.

The lack of key information can impact planning processes at points when significant resources have already been expended, or create conflict within communities, causing construction projects to be redesigned or delayed. To provide the public with complete and detailed knowledge of historic properties and burial sites across the State, this measure will appropriate funds to the State Historic Preservation Division to expedite and develop a complete, comprehensive statewide inventory of historic properties and burial sites.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Inserting blank appropriation amounts;

(2) Inserting an effective date of July 1, 2050, to encourage further discussion; and

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

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Water and Land that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2757, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2757, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Water and Land,

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LORRAINE R. INOUYE, Chair