STAND. COM. REP. NO. 118
Honolulu, Hawaii
RE: S.B. No. 1669
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 Transportation and Culture and the Arts and Housing, to which was referred S.B. No. 1669 entitled:
"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO TRANSIT ORIENTED DEVELOPMENT,"
beg leave to report as follows:
The purpose and intent of this measure is to:
(1) Establish the Transit Oriented Community Improvement Partnership within the Department of Transportation;
(2) Establish the Community Improvement Revolving Fund;
(3) Authorize the Hawaii Community Development Authority to assist the mission of the Partnership;
(4) Designate exemptions;
(5) Require annual reports to the Legislature; and
(6) Appropriate funds.
Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawaiʻi Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation Commission; Hawaiʻi Appleseed Center for Law and Economic Justice; Stanford Carr Development, LLC; Trees for Honolulu's Future; American Institute of Architects Hawaii State Council; and two individuals.
Your Committees received testimony in opposition to this measure from one individual.
Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Department of Budget and Finance and Hawaiʻi Community Development Authority.
Your Committees find that the two highest costs contributing to the cost of living are housing and transportation. Your Committees believe that lowering the cost of living for communities, not solely housing, should be a priority in order to reduce overall costs of living in the State. By tasking an agency to plan for and build community amenities such as parks, public spaces, markets, and other amenities that make communities livable, the State can implement a multi-faceted approach that can place people in affordable communities, not just affordable housing. This measure will organize efforts to plan, develop, and coordinate transit oriented community development by establishing a partnership agency within the Department of Transportation.
Your Committees note the comments made by the Hawaii Community Development Authority regarding its purview. Your Committees also acknowledge that the Authority's primary mission is to redevelop communities rather than plan, develop, build, and implement new projects.
Accordingly, your
Committees have amended this measure by:
(1) Specifying that the Transit Oriented Community Improvement Partnership shall:
(A) Plan, coordinate, and administer projects and programs to develop meaningful infrastructure, housing, and amenities to create walkable communities along transit oriented corridors for working families that are affordable, livable, healthy, happy equitable, and secure; and
(B) Identify and designate each transit oriented community improvement area, and may assist other communities with individual projects as may be appropriate;
(2) Clarifying that the Transit Oriented Community
Improvement Partnership may:
(A) Through administrative rules, establish and implement a business or community improvement district, to be governed by an approved independent entity with a board represented by stakeholders from the community with the purpose of providing additional services or improvements to the district;
(B) Provide grant funding to support the establishment and up to one year of operations of a business or community improvement district; and
(C) Adopt rules to establish a fee mechanism to provide long-term funding for a business or community improvement district, subject to approval by either a majority of property owners, contributors, or other stakeholders which it is designed to serve;
(3) Inserting
language that adds to the Board of Directors the:
(A) Director of the Office of Planning and Sustainable Development, or the Director's designee; and
(B) Head of the Community Based Economic Development Program in the Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism;
(4) Clarifying
for the Board of Directors that:
(A) Two members with history and expertise in
affordable housing shall be appointed by the President of the Senate;
(B) Two members with history and expertise in public spaces shall be appointed by the President of the Senate; and
(C) Two members with history and expertise in urban planning shall be appointed by the Speaker of the House of Representatives;
(5) Specifying that the Partnership may acquire or contract to acquire by grant, purchase, or condemnation pursuant to chapter 101;
(6) Deleting
language that would have allowed the Department of Transportation to transfer
lands to the Partnership under certain circumstances;
(7) Clarifying
that any department may transfer development rights for lands under its
jurisdiction to the Partnership;
(8) Deleting
language that would have required the Hawaii Community Development Authority to
assist the Partnership;
(9) Establishing
one full-time (1.0 FTE) administrative assistant position;
(10) Amending section 1 to reflect its amended
purpose;
(11) Inserting an effective date of July 1, 2050, to encourage further discussion; and
(12) 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 Transportation and Culture and the Arts and Housing that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1669, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1669, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.
Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Transportation and Culture and the Arts and Housing,
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________________________________ STANLEY CHANG, Chair |
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________________________________ CHRIS LEE, Chair |
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