STAND. COM. REP. NO. 301
Honolulu, Hawaii
S.D. 1
President of the Senate
Thirty-Second State Legislature
State of Hawaii
Sir:
Your Committees on Agriculture and Environment and Water and Land, to which was referred S.B. No. 1417 entitled:
"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO CLIMATE CHANGE,"
beg leave to report as follows:
The purpose and intent of this measure is to require the Hawaii Community Development Authority to consider the impacts of climate change, sea level rise, and climate resilience development in the design and siting of buildings in the Kakaako and Kalaeloa community development districts.
Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Office of Planning and Sustainable Development, Hawai‘i Community Development Authority, University of Hawai‘i System, Climate Protectors Coalition, and two individuals. Your Committees received testimony in opposition to this measure from one individual.
Your Committees find that Hawaii is experiencing a climate emergency. Climate change and sea level rise pose significant, dangerous, and imminent threats to public safety, nature and the environment, cultural resources, property, infrastructure, and government functions. Your Committees further find that the Hawaii Community Development Authority plans, coordinates, and implements new infrastructure and development projects in the Kakaako and Kalaeloa community development districts on Oahu. Your Committees recognize that the Kakaako Community Development District will be particularly threatened by the effects of climate change, including sea level rise, king tides, and heavy rainfall, and that the lack of drainage infrastructure in the Kalaeloa Community Development District makes it especially vulnerable to heavy rainfall and other effects of climate change. Thus, this measure requires the Hawaii Community Development Authority to consider the impacts of climate change, sea level rise, and climate resilient development in the design and siting of buildings in the Kakaako and Kalaeloa community development districts.
Your Committees have amended this measure by inserting recommended language from the University of Hawai‘i Sea Grant College Program and Climate Resilience Collaboration that requires development in the Kakaako and Kalaeloa community development districts to implement certain design standards for new construction relating to the elevation of the lowest first floor.
As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Agriculture and Environment and Water and Land that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1417, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1417, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.
Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Agriculture and Environment and Water and Land,
|
________________________________ LORRAINE R. INOUYE, Chair |
|
________________________________ MIKE GABBARD, Chair |
|
|
|
|