Bill Text: HI SB763 | 2024 | Regular Session | Amended
Bill Title: Relating To Affordable Housing.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 10-0)
Status: (Engrossed - Dead) 2023-12-11 - Carried over to 2024 Regular Session. [SB763 Detail]
Download: Hawaii-2024-SB763-Amended.html
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THE SENATE |
S.B. NO. |
763 |
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THIRTY-SECOND LEGISLATURE, 2023 |
S.D. 2 |
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STATE OF HAWAII |
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A BILL FOR AN ACT
RELATING TO AFFORDABLE HOUSING.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:
The legislature also finds that this drastic decline in economic activity has disproportionately affected the State's most vulnerable populations. The COVID-19 pandemic forced the shutdown of many sectors of the State's economy, triggering mass layoffs and furloughs and causing the State's seasonally adjusted unemployment to surge from 2.4 per cent in March 2020 to a historical high of 22.3 per cent in April 2020. Despite efforts to reopen the economy, Hawaii still had the second-highest unemployment rate in the nation as of November 2020. With the COVID-19 pandemic continuing to rage in some parts of the world and certain countries experiencing recession, visitor arrivals to the State are not expected to recover to pre-pandemic levels until at least 2024. The State will therefore continue to feel the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic for many years to come.
The legislature further finds that, even before the COVID‑19 pandemic, renter households in the State already suffered from deleteriously high housing cost burdens, and that the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic significantly exacerbated this situation. Recent data from the University of Hawaii economic research organization (UHERO) showed that more than eleven thousand tenants in the state had fallen behind on their rent payments and that forty per cent of rental tenants had lost their jobs. Even in a best-case scenario, the number of individuals facing homelessness will continue to rise because of the COVID-19 pandemic. UHERO concluded that, from a policy standpoint, "doing nothing is not a viable option".
Accordingly, the legislature finds that it must take immediate action to mitigate the affordable housing crisis through legislation.
The purpose of this Act is to temporarily exempt affordable housing projects by the Hawaii housing finance and development corporation from specific state and county fees and exactions related to discretionary approval or ministerial permitting, except application fees payable to the Hawaii housing finance and development corporation; provided that the housing units are exclusively for certain qualified residents who are owner or renter occupants and who own no other real property.
SECTION 2. Section 201H-38, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:
"§201H-38 Housing
development; exemption from statutes, ordinances, charter provisions, and
rules. (a) The corporation may develop on behalf of the
State or with an eligible developer, or may assist under a government assistance
program in the development of, housing projects that shall be exempt from all
statutes, ordinances, charter provisions, and rules of any government agency
relating to planning, zoning, construction standards for subdivisions,
development and improvement of land, and the construction of dwelling units
thereon; provided that:
(1) The corporation finds the housing project is
consistent with the purpose and intent of this chapter, and meets minimum
requirements of health and safety;
(2) The development of the proposed housing
project does not contravene any safety standards, tariffs, or rates and fees
approved by the public utilities commission for public utilities or of the
various boards of water supply authorized under chapter 54;
(3) The [legislative body of the] county in
which the housing project is to be situated shall have approved the project
with or without modifications:
(A) The [legislative body] county
shall approve, approve with modification, or disapprove the project by
resolution within forty-five days after the corporation has submitted the
preliminary plans and specifications for the project to the [legislative
body.] county. If, on
the forty-sixth day, a project is not disapproved, it shall be deemed
approved by the [legislative body;] county;
(B) No action shall be prosecuted or maintained
against any county, its officials, or employees on account of actions taken by
them in reviewing, approving, modifying, or disapproving the plans and
specifications; and
(C) The final plans and specifications for the
project shall be deemed approved by the [legislative body] county
if the final plans and specifications do not substantially deviate from the preliminary
plans and specifications. The final
plans and specifications for the project shall constitute the zoning, building,
construction, and subdivision standards for that project. For purposes of sections 501-85 and 502-17,
the executive director of the corporation or the responsible county official
may certify maps and plans of lands connected with the project as having
complied with applicable laws and ordinances relating to consolidation and
subdivision of lands, and the maps and plans shall be accepted for registration
or recordation by the land court and registrar; and
(4) The land use commission shall approve, approve
with modification, or disapprove a boundary change within forty-five days after
the corporation has submitted a petition to the commission as provided in
section 205‑4. If, on the
forty-sixth day, the petition is not disapproved, it shall be deemed approved
by the commission.
(b) Affordable housing projects developed
pursuant to this section shall be exempt from all state and county fees and
exactions related to discretionary approval or ministerial permitting relating
to planning, development, and improvement of land, and the construction of
dwelling units thereon; provided that the exemption under this subsection shall
not apply to the fees and costs payable to the corporation nor the rates and
fees approved of the various boards of water supply authorized under chapter 54;
provided further that the dwelling units developed as part of a fee-exempted
affordable housing project shall be exclusively made available to households
having incomes at or below one hundred per cent of the area median family
income as determined by the United States Department of Housing and Urban
Development who:
(1) Are qualified residents, as defined by
section 201H‑32;
(2) Are owner or renter occupants; and
(3) Own no other real property.
[(b)]
(c) For the purposes of this
section, "government assistance program" means a housing program
qualified by the corporation and administered or operated by the corporation or
the United States or any of their political subdivisions, agencies, or
instrumentalities, corporate or otherwise."
SECTION 3. Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken. New statutory material is underscored.
SECTION 4. This Act shall take effect on March 22, 2075; provided that on June 30, 2028, this Act shall be repealed and section 201H-38, Hawaii Revised Statutes, shall be reenacted in the form in which it read on the day before the effective date of this Act.
Report Title:
Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corporation; Affordable Housing; State Fees
Description:
Temporarily exempts affordable housing projects from specific state and county fees and exactions related to discretionary approval or ministerial permitting, except application fees payable to the Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corporation and the rates and fees of the various boards of water supply; provided that the units are exclusively made available to certain qualified residents who are owner or renter occupants and own no other real property. Effective 3/22/2075. Repeals 6/30/2028. (SD2)
The summary description
of legislation appearing on this page is for informational purposes only and is
not legislation or evidence of legislative intent.
