House Standing Committee on Tourism

Good morning, and aloha. Thank you everyone for being here today at your committee on tourism hearing. I'm vice chair Templo. We're here with chair Tam, rep Iligan, and rep Gideon. Thank you for being here.

Today is Thursday, 04/16/2026, 09:30 at the State Capitol Conference Room 423. We have one measure on the agenda, SCR159 SD1, urging the adoption of shared guiding principles for the restoration of Waikiki beaches. We're going to go straight into it. First off, for registered testifiers, we have the state office of planning and sustainable development, director Evans in support.

Good morning, chair Tam vice chair Templo and members Gideon, I'm Mary Alice Evans the director of the office of planning and sustainable development This RESO is a collaborative effort of the DBED, Office of Planning, the AG's office in consultation with legislators. It states some guiding principles that we feel are very important, and one of them is shared cost. Shared cost, if I can just, you know, put it very generally, is if there's a private benefit the private sector needs to pay.

If there's a public benefit, the public sector can pay. If it's affordable, the Legislature agrees. So in putting this into ARESSA, we'll be able to point to this as we negotiate with different parties that are involved. This is a very multiparty effort and we want to move forward as quickly as possible.

I want to note that the House, thank you very much, put funds into the green fee project for the first and most urgent area in Waikiki, which is the Kubehiwehi sector, which needs work as soon as possible. So, I wanna thank you for that. Thank you, I'm available for questions.

Thank you, director. Next on our registered testifiers list, we have Waikiki Beach Special Improvement District Association, mister Ivan Kwan in support.

Hello, Mike. Chair Tam, vice chair Tam, and members of the committee. My name is Ivan Lee Kwan, and I provide a written testimony on behalf of the Waikiki Beach Special Improvement District Association. With me are Rick Eggett and Trevor Abarzua. What we requested in our submission are our amendments, and we believe that the amendments will be very helpful in developing the shared guiding principles for the restoration of the Waikiki beaches.

What the amendments do is provide clarification for the development of these shared guiding principles for restoration of the beaches. But the shared guiding principles, we believe, will be more fully promptly directed with the acknowledgment and cooperation of important legal authorities which impact the restoration of Waikiki beaches. More specifically, there are two areas of authorities that we think are important that are there already, and all we're doing is pointing this out to, you know, to the legislature.

One is the existing agreements of 10/19/1928 and 07/05/1929 between the territory of Hawaii and the landowners. The second is a 05/28/1965 agreement between the state of Hawaii and private owners of property between the Moana Husserl Rider Hotel and the Royal Hawaiian Hotel.

The second group of authorities are really case law that have been adopted by the Hawaii Supreme Court. Reference is made, but to those Hawaii Supreme Court cases that talk about not only talk about, they made principles, legal principles with respect to the rights and obligations of the different parties, the state of Hawaii and the private property owners with respect to the duty to maintain and repair the sea walls to Waikiki. So to the extent that Miss Mary Alice indicates when we're talking about shared costs, I think that concept has to be guided in part by the law, so we believe the law in these the Supreme Court cases, the agreements of 1928, 1929, and 1965.

Our authorities need to be acknowledged and incorporated into the shared guiding principles. And so we really appreciate the opportunity to provide testimony, and we really commend the state for taking this step in developing a shared guiding framework. But we believe that the incorporation of these and recognition of these laws and these authorities are important. So thank you very much for allowing me to allowing us to testify.

Thank you for your testimony.

You're welcome.

That is all that we have on our registered testifiers list. We did receive testimonies in support by DLNR, DBEDT, and the Land Use Research Foundation of Hawaii. Is there anyone else in the audience wanting to testify?

Oh, thank you. Okay. Anyone else in the room? Anyone on Zoom? Members, discussion?

Questions, comments? Seeing none, we're gonna do a short recess. Recess. Thank you again everyone for being here today. Reconvening our 09:30 hearing on the committee on tourism on one measure SER159.

Chair, vice chair's recommendation is to include tech amendments, and then we're also going to include public and private stakeholders to follow the shared guiding principles for the Waikiki Beach restoration. We're gonna add the president and executive director of the Waikiki Business Improvement District. We're gonna adopt amendments from OPSD, and we're also gonna adopt amendments from the Waikiki Beach Special Improvement District Association, and we're gonna take amendments .2 & 3 from the Land Use Research Foundation of Hawaii. Members, discussion, questions, comments?

Just a quick comment?

Yes.

I'd like to thank everyone here who's done such hard work and being responsible stewards for one of the hubs of our economy. Thank you for your hard work, guys.

K. Thank you. Anyone else? Okay. Voting on SCR 159 SD 1. Chair, for the vote, please.

Voting on SCR 159 SD 1. Chair, vice chair's recommendation is passed with amendments. Chair, vice chair vote aye. Rep Hussey?

Aye.

Rep Gedeon?

Rep Ilagan?

Aye.

Rep Yamashita?

Aye.

Aye.

Vice chair, your recommendation is adopted.

Great. Thank you, vice chair. Thank you, everyone. Have a great day. Thank you.