Hawaii-2012-SB766-Introduced

SECTION 1. Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 132, S.D. 1 (2009), established a task force to determine the economic contributions of the construction industry in Hawaii and to develop a series of proposals for state actions to preserve and create new jobs in the local construction industry. This Act implements one of the task force's proposals in conjunction with the Abercrombie administration's support for state actions to create new jobs in Hawaii's construction industry.

In addition, in 2010, the senate committee on economic development and technology and the house committee on economic revitalization, business, and military affairs convened an informal small business discussion group to address the most critical issues facing the small business sectors within Hawaii's economy. Representatives from the Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii, construction and trades industries, community nonprofits, the agricultural sector, food and restaurant industries, retailing, the science and technology sector, the commercial transportation industry, and interested stakeholders developed a package of bills that address the most pressing problems facing Hawaii's small business community.

The purpose of this Act is to support the findings of the small business working group and the recommendations proposed by the construction industry task force to extend to the airports and highways divisions of the department of transportation the same exemptions from county shoreline management area permit requirements that are provided to the harbors division of the department of transportation.

SECTION 2. Chapter 264, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by adding a new section to be appropriately designated and to read as follows:

"§264‑ Exemption from county permitting. Notwithstanding any law to the contrary, all structures and improvements to land to be used for state or county highway purposes:

(1) May be planned, designed, and constructed by the appropriate state or county department without the approval of county agencies;

(2) Shall be exempt from any county permitting requirements; and

(3) Shall be exempt from any county agencies' special management area permitting requirements."

SECTION 3. Section 205A-22, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by amending the definition of "development" to read as follows:

""Development" means any of the uses, activities, or operations on land or in or under water within a special management area that are included below:

(1) Placement or erection of any solid material or any gaseous, liquid, solid, or thermal waste;

(2) Grading, removing, dredging, mining, or extraction of any materials;

(3) Change in the density or intensity of use of land, including but not limited to the division or subdivision of land;

(4) Change in the intensity of use of water, ecology related thereto, or of access thereto; and

(5) Construction, reconstruction, demolition, or alteration of the size of any structure.

"Development" does not include the following:

(1) Construction of a single-family residence that is not part of a larger development;

(2) Repair or maintenance of roads and highways within existing rights-of-way;

(3) Routine maintenance dredging of existing streams, channels, and drainage ways;

(4) Repair and maintenance of underground utility lines, including but not limited to water, sewer, power, and telephone and minor appurtenant structures such as pad mounted transformers and sewer pump stations;

(5) Zoning variances, except for height, density, parking, and shoreline setback;

(6) Repair, maintenance, or interior alterations to existing structures;

(7) Demolition or removal of structures, except those structures located on any historic site as designated in national or state registers;

(8) Use of any land for the purpose of cultivating, planting, growing, and harvesting plants, crops, trees, and other agricultural, horticultural, or forestry products or animal husbandry, or aquaculture or mariculture of plants or animals, or other agricultural purposes;

(9) Transfer of title to land;

(10) Creation or termination of easements, covenants, or other rights in structures or land;

(11) Subdivision of land into lots greater than twenty acres in size;

(12) Subdivision of a parcel of land into four or fewer parcels when no associated construction activities are proposed; provided that any land which is so subdivided shall not thereafter qualify for this exception with respect to any subsequent subdivision of any of the resulting parcels;

(13) Installation of underground utility lines and appurtenant aboveground fixtures less than four feet in height along existing corridors;

(14) Structural and nonstructural improvements to existing single-family residences, where otherwise permissible;

(15) Nonstructural improvements to existing commercial structures; [~~and~~]

(16) Construction, installation, maintenance, repair, and replacement of civil defense warning or signal devices and sirens;

(17) Construction of airports authorized by the department of transportation pursuant to section 261-4; and

(18) Construction of highways authorized by the department of transportation pursuant to section 264-7;

provided that whenever the authority finds that any excluded use, activity, or operation may have a cumulative impact, or a significant environmental or ecological effect on a special management area, that use, activity, or operation shall be defined as "development" for the purpose of this part."

SECTION 4. Section 261-4, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by amending subsection (c) to read as follows:

"(c) Structures and improvements. [~~All~~] Notwithstanding any law to the contrary, all structures and improvements to land, to be used for airport purposes[~~, may~~]:

(1) May be planned, designed, and constructed by the department[.] without the approval of county agencies; and

(2) Shall be exempt from county agencies' special management area permitting requirements."

SECTION 5. Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 6. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

INTRODUCED BY:	_____________________________

THE SENATE	S.B. NO.	766
TWENTY-SIXTH LEGISLATURE, 2011
STATE OF HAWAII