STAND. COM. REP. NO. 585

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 1308

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2025

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Water and Land and Government Operations, to which was referred S.B. No. 1308 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO PLANS,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

(1) Remove outdated requirements for plans filed with the Registrar of Conveyances;

(2) Update the statutory fee schedule to reflect those adopted in chapter 40 of title 3, Hawaii Administrative Rules;

(3) Grant additional discretion to the Land Survey Division of the Department of Accounting and General Services to approve the format of plans; and

(4) Update the permissible drawing scales used in plans.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Accounting and General Services.

Your Committees find that housekeeping amendments are necessary to modernize the laws governing the Bureau of Conveyances in order to reflect modern description and mapmaking practices. Current requirements maintain outdated, restrictive, and expensive practices, such as plotting filed plans on mylar tracings. This measure conforms outdated regulations to modern best practices and affords the Department of Accounting and General Services the flexibility necessary to handle special circumstances as they arise, facilitating lower costs and faster reviews and approvals.

Your Committees note that numerous survey monuments in Lahaina were inadvertently cleared or removed during cleanup efforts in the aftermath of the Maui wildfires. Survey monuments or markers are used to identify and preserve property boundaries, establish reference points for future measurements, and mark key points for land surveying and mapping. Your Committees further note that the absence of survey monuments has delayed rebuilding efforts. Your Committees believe that it is essential that the Land Survey Division of the Department of Accounting and General Services replace the survey monuments in Lahaina to facilitate its reconstruction.

Your Committees have amended this measure by making a technical, nonsubstantive amendment.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Water and Land and Government Operations that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1308, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1308, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

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

________________________________ ANGUS L.K. MCKELVEY, Chair

________________________________ LORRAINE R. INOUYE, Chair