Committees advance bill to inventory state and county parcels for long‑term housing planning

A joint hearing of the Senate committees on Housing and on Water, Land, Culture and the Arts voted to pass Senate Bill 2,068 with amendments that create an affordable housing land inventory task force within the Office of Planning and Sustainable Development (OPSD).

The amended measure directs OPSD to produce a prioritized list of state and county parcels suitable for housing development—including transit‑oriented development zones—and to report parcel‑level unit capacity and projected development dates to the Legislature. Committee chairs described the change as designed to produce the “parcel list, the number of units to be developed on each, and dates to be developed sufficient to meet Hawaii’s housing needs for the next 100 years.”

OPSD told the committee it is compiling parcel lists from existing TOD pipelines, county inventories and the Governor’s office, but said it cannot yet provide firm unit counts or schedules. On the cost to produce the inventory, an OPSD representative estimated “the ballpark I can give you now is 250,000.”

Committee members pressed OPSD on data sourcing and timelines; OPSD said the agency will need to combine datasets from multiple units of government and may rely on contractual support. Chairs noted the committee report will also record an appropriation request of $250,000 to support the task force’s work.

The Committee on Housing adopted the chair’s recommendation to pass SB 2,068 with amendments; the committee recorded the chair and listed members as voting aye and noted one member excused. The Committee on Water, Land, Culture and the Arts adopted the same recommendation.

The committees’ amendments emphasize producing specific parcel‑level outputs and a funding note to begin work if appropriated. The bill now advances with the committee reports’ amendment language.

Next steps: the bill proceeds with the adopted amendments and an appropriation request; OPSD and committee staff will coordinate on the scope and timeline for the inventory.