OPPOSE HB1738 HD2: Defend the LUC
/March 19 Update: DEFEATED!
HB1738 HD2 was deferred by the Senate Energy and Intergovernmental Affairs, Housing, and Water, Land, Culture, and the Arts Committees on March 19—and is essentially defeated for this session. This measure threatened the LUC's longstanding protection of our food and water security, cultural and environmental integrity, affordable housing, and climate resilience - for housing construction delays, despite all data and other evidence to the contrary.
Mahalo nui to the 32 individuals and organizations who submitted testimony in opposition and thanks to Chairs Wakai, Chang, Lee and Vice Chairs Hashimoto and Inouye for deferring this measure.
March 17 Update
Help us defeat HB1738 once and for all! On Thursday, March 19 at 3:01pm (watch live here), a joint session of the Senate Water, Land, Culture, and the Arts, Energy and Intergovernmental Affairs, and Housing Committees will hear HB1738 HD2. This bill continues to scapegoat the Land Use Commission - and its longstanding protection of our food and water security, cultural and environmental integrity, affordable housing, and climate resilience - for housing construction delays, despite all data and other evidence to the contrary.
Please take a moment to submit testimony and ask your friends to do the same! And if you are able, consider testifying verbally on HB1738 HD2. Sample testimony and instructions below.
February 28 Update
HB1738 HD1 was unfortunately passed by the House Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs on February 26. This measure scapegoats the Land Use Commission for housing delays by limiting its oversight over large-scale (25-acre) urbanization proposals. Amendments were made by the committee but they did not fully address our concerns.
Mahalo nui to the over 40 individuals and organizations who submitted testimony in opposition.
February 24 Update
It’s back! Help us defeat SB2007’s companion bill, HB1738 HD1 this Thursday at 2pm. HB1738 HD1 scapegoats the Land Use Commission for housing delays by limiting its oversight over large-scale (25-acre) urbanization proposals, while needlessly compromising our future food and water security, cultural integrity, climate resilience, affordable housing opportunities, and other long-term interests.
Please take a moment to submit testimony and ask your friends to do the same! And if you are able, consider testifying verbally on HB1738 HD1. Sample testimony and instructions below.
Sample Testimony
Aloha Chair Lee, Chair Wakai, Chair Chang, Vice Chair Inouye, Vice Chair Hashimoto, and members of the Committees,
My name is [Name], and I STRONGLY OPPOSE HB1738 HD2.
While I fully appreciate this measure’s intent to facilitate affordable housing, its provisions once again scapegoat the Land Use Commission (LUC) for housing construction delays, against all data and evidence to the contrary. Please do not roll back the critical protections the LUC provides for our food security, public trust resources, Native Hawaiian traditional and customary rights, climate resilience, low-income housing needs, and other public interests that may be impacted by large-scale land use changes – all to save just 45 days on affordable housing construction timelines that often take up the better part of a decade due to other, non-LUC related causes.
The LUC has long administered a critical, comprehensive process to identify and mitigate impacts to natural and cultural resources, Native Hawaiian traditional and customary rights, food security, and other public interests that may be affected by the large-scale reclassification of conservation, rural, and agricultural lands into the urban district. Unlike existing county land use planning and decisionmaking, the quasi-judicial, “court-like” nature of this LUC “district boundary amendment” (DBA) process ensures that data and information from technical experts, cultural practitioners, and other stakeholders can be formally considered, vetted, and explicitly incorporated in its DBA approvals.
Throughout its decades of work, the LUC has also demonstrated its ability to consistently balance the public’s interests while overseeing such large-scale land use changes, without creating undue delays. Notably, throughout the 2010s and to the present day, the LUC has consistently met the one-year approval deadline for completed DBA petitions, as well as the 45-day approval deadline for DBAs needed to accommodate HRS § 201H-38 “affordable housing” projects.
By limiting the LUC’s jurisdiction to DBAs involving more than 25 acres, this bill will needlessly limit a critical land use oversight mechanism that consistently and efficiently safeguards the public trust, Native Hawaiian rights, and other public interests in large land use changes - for marginal to no benefit to housing development. Please do not support this giveaway to developer profit margins at the expense of our local communities.
Given that the LUC has already approved tens of thousands of largely affordable and workforce housing units that remain undeveloped, I encourage the Committees to instead explore providing the LUC with enforcement tools, such as civil penalties, that could incentivize developer follow-through on their housing construction commitments.
Mahalo nui for the opportunity to testify.
Sincerely,
[Your name]
Testimony instructions
Register for a capitol website account if you haven’t yet (youʻll need to confirm your registration by responding to an automated email).
Sign in to capitol.hawaii.gov with your registration information and click the "Submit Testimony" button.
Enter “HB1738” where it says "Enter Bill or Measure."
Input your information, select “OPPOSE”, write or copy/paste your testimony, and select your testimony option(s)—in-person + written, remotely + written, written only. Please consider providing verbal testimony (in-person or remotely) on HB1738 if you are able.
Note: Virtual testimony option may be disabled 24 hours before the hearing.
If you are testifying via Zoom, be sure to review these instructions (page 4).
Spread the word!
February 18 Update
SB2007, which would remove the Land Use Commission's oversight over proposed land use changes involving up to 25 acres of land, was deferred by the Senate Water, Land, Culture and the Arts and Energy and Intergovernmental Affairs Committees on February 17 and is essentially defeated for this session.
Mahalo nui to the over 50 individuals and organizations who submitted testimony in support and special thanks to Chairs Lee and Inouye and Vice Chairs Wakai and Chang for deferring this measure.
Bill Background & Info
Defend the Land Use Commission (again) from a “zombie bill” that once again seeks to scapegoat the Land Use Commission for housing construction delays. This bill will reduce the Commission's ability to preserve our food security, protect Native Hawaiian traditional and customary rights, respond to the climate crisis, and ensure housing for all income levels, when approving large scale land use changes.
Tomorrow, Tuesday, February 17 at 1:01pm in room 224, the Senate Water, Land, Culture and the Arts and Energy and Intergovernmental Affairs Committees will hear SB2007.
Please take a moment to submit testimony on this measure, sample testimony and instructions below.
What this bill does
SB2007 would remove the Land Use Commission (LUC’s) oversight over proposed land use changes involving up to 25 acres of land.
Why this is important
SB2007 would prevent the LUC from using its time-tested, transparent, and accountable process to review certain large land use change proposals, and ensure conditions that can safeguard our food security, cultural practices, public trust resources, climate resilience, and housing affordability and job creation needs - public interests that are not considered or adequately accounted for in county land use processes and decisionmaking.
Sample testimony for SB2007
Aloha Chairs Lee and Wakai, Vice Chairs Inouye and Chang, and members of the Committees,
My name is [Name], and I am writing in STRONG OPPOSITION to SB2007.
This measure once again scapegoats the Land Use Commission (LUC) for housing construction delays, in order to allow developers to avoid the critical protections the LUC provides for our food security, public trust resources, Native Hawaiian traditional and customary rights, climate resilience, low-income housing needs, and other public interests that may be impacted by large-scale land use changes.
The LUC has long administered a critical, comprehensive process to identify and mitigate impacts to natural and cultural resources, Native Hawaiian traditional and customary rights, food security, and other public interests that may be affected by the large-scale reclassification of conservation, rural, and agricultural lands into the urban district. Unlike existing county land use planning and decisionmaking, the quasi-judicial, “court-like” nature of this LUC “district boundary amendment” (“DBA”) process ensures that data and other information from technical experts, cultural practitioners, and other stakeholders can be formally considered, vetted, and explicitly incorporated in its DBA approvals.
Throughout its decades of work, the LUC has also demonstrated its ability to consistently balance the public’s interests while overseeing such large-scale land use changes, without creating undue delays. Notably, throughout the 2010s and to the present day, the LUC has consistently met the one-year approval deadline for completed DBA petitions, as well as the 45-day approval deadline for DBAs needed to accommodate HRS § 201H-38 “affordable housing” projects.
By limiting the LUC’s jurisdiction to DBAs involving more than 25 acres, this bill will needlessly limit a critical land use oversight mechanism that consistently and efficiently safeguards the public trust, Native Hawaiian rights, and other public interests in large land use changes - for little to no benefit to housing development. Please do not support this thinly veiled giveaway to developer profit margins at the expense of our local communities.
Mahalo nui for the opportunity to testify.
Sincerely,
[Your name]
Testimony instructions
Register for a capitol website account if you haven’t yet (youʻll need to confirm your registration by responding to an automated email).
Sign in to capitol.hawaii.gov with your registration information and click the "Submit Testimony" button.
Enter “SB2007” where it says "Enter Bill or Measure."
Input your information, select “OPPOSE”, write or copy/paste your testimony, and select your testimony option(s)—in-person + written, remotely + written, written only. Please consider providing verbal testimony (in-person or remotely) if you are able!
Note: Virtual testimony option may be disabled 24 hours before the hearing.
If you are testifying via Zoom, be sure to review these instructions (page 4).
Spread the word!