HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.C.R. NO.	151
THIRTY-SECOND LEGISLATURE, 2024
STATE OF HAWAII

HOUSE CONCURRENT

RESOLUTION

 

 

requesting the Department of Accounting and General Services to conduct a study on the feasibility of exempting all state-related construction from county permitting requirements and establishing a permitting division within the department to be responsible for permitting services for all state-related construction.

 

 

 

     WHEREAS, developers in the State are generally required to obtain building permits from the county in which their project is located to ensure that construction and renovation work is completed in accordance with federal, state, and local laws, ordinances, and codes; and

 

     WHEREAS, county agencies responsible for permitting have been experiencing difficulties in hiring qualified land use plan reviewers, resulting in a chronic backlog of permit applications; and

 

     WHEREAS, a survey issued in April 2022 by the University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization found that Hawaii, Kauai, and Maui County and the City and County of Honolulu were among the nation's eleven most heavily regulated counties and that the average delay in issuing building permits in Hawaii is three times longer than the survey sample mean; and

 

     WHEREAS, state departments routinely oversee construction projects, all of which require approval from the county in which the project is located; and

 

     WHEREAS, multiple stages of project review at the county level contribute to the county permitting agencies' permit backlog; and

 

     WHEREAS, it is prudent to eliminate barriers that prevent expeditious construction of projects that are over seen by the State; now, therefore,

 

     BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Thirty-second Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2024, the Senate concurring, that the Department of Accounting and General Services is requested to conduct a study on the feasibility of exempting all state-related construction projects from county permitting requirements and establishing a Permitting Division within the Department to be responsible for permitting services for all state-related construction; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a certified copy of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the Comptroller.

 

 

 

	OFFERED BY:	_____________________________

Report Title: 

DAGS; State-related Construction; County Permitting; Exemption; Study