STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2520

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 3047

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2024

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Housing and Agriculture and Environment, to which was referred S.B. No. 3047 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENTS,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to codify the exemption from environmental impact statements for affordable housing projects that meet certain criteria.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corporation; Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism; Department of Hawaiian Home Lands; Office of Planning and Sustainable Development; Affordable Housing Connections LLC; EAH Housing; NAIOP Hawaii; and Building Industry Association Hawaiʻi.

Your Committees received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Sierra Club of Hawaiʻi, Kupuna for Moʻopuna, Conservation Council for Hawaiʻi, The Outdoor Circle, Maui Nui Marine Resource Council, and nineteen individuals.

Your Committees find that Hawaii is currently undergoing a housing crisis. Lengthy regulatory and entitlement processes can further delay and add unnecessary costs to the development of affordable housing projects. This measure will therefore streamline the regulatory process for qualified affordable housing projects to increase feasibility.

Your Committees have amended this measure by:

(1) Deleting the exemption for agricultural land use districts;

(2) Inserting an effective date of 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 Housing and Agriculture and Environment that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 3047, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 3047, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Housing and Agriculture and Environment,

________________________________ MIKE GABBARD, Chair

________________________________ STANLEY CHANG, Chair