STAND. COM. REP. NO. 211

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2025

RE: H.B. No. 1008

H.D. 1

Honorable Nadine K. Nakamura

Speaker, House of Representatives

Thirty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2025

State of Hawaii

Madame:

Your Committee on Housing, to which was referred H.B. No. 1008 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HISTORIC PRESERVATION REVIEWS OF STATE AFFORDABLE HOUSING PROJECTS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to:

(1) Require the Department of Land and Natural Resources to determine the effect of any proposed state affordable housing project within ninety days of a request for determination; and

(2) Set forth the historic review requirements based on the project area's known historic, cultural, and archaeological resources.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism; Department of Land and Natural Resources; Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corporation; NAIOP Hawaii; and Maui Chamber of Commerce.

Your Committee finds that lengthy and backlogged historic preservation reviews prevent the timely development of affordable housing and drive up its costs. This measure would enable affordable housing units to be built at a faster pace and lower cost by creating a separate historic review process for certain proposed state affordable housing projects.

Your Committee has amended this measure:

(1) Authorizing the Department of Land and Natural Resources to allow a proposed project to proceed under an archaeological monitoring program if the Department determines that the proposed project is located in a highly sensitive area and an archaeological inventory survey has already been previously reviewed and accepted by the Department;

(2) Specifying that the Department of Land and Natural Resources may allow a proposed project to proceed under an archaeological monitoring program in a moderately sensitive area where an archaeological inventory survey has already been previously reviewed and accepted by the Department;

(3) Clarifying that the Department of Land and Natural Resources shall provide its written documentation within ninety days after the filing of a complete and accurate project request;

(4) Clarifying when an agency or officer of the State or its political subdivisions is required to obtain state inventory of historic places numbers for all historic properties identified within an affordable housing project area during the archaeological inventory survey;

(5) Clarifying mitigation efforts an agency or officer may take if an adverse effect on a significant historic property cannot reasonably be avoided;

(6) Clarifying the conditions and procedures in determining when work is stopped if human remains or historic properties are identified during archaeological monitoring or affordable housing project construction;

(7) Changing the effective date to July 1, 3000, to encourage further discussion; and

(8) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity, consistency, and style.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Housing that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1008, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1008, H.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Water & Land.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Housing,

____________________________

LUKE A. EVSLIN, Chair