[§6E-8.5] Proposed state or county housing projects; historic review requirements. (a) Notwithstanding section 6E-8, before any agency or officer of the State or its political subdivisions commences any housing project that may affect a historic property, an aviation artifact, or a burial site, the agency or officer shall advise and authorize the department to make a determination for the proposed project as to the effect of the project on the historic property, aviation artifact, or burial site. The project shall not commence or continue until the department has made its determination; provided that:
The department shall provide its written determination within ninety days after the filing of a complete and accurate project request with the department; provided that the department's determination may be appealed to the Hawaii historic places review board.
(b) The department shall confirm that housing projects have state inventory of historic places numbers for all historic properties located within the housing project area before the start of construction.
(c) A project proponent shall obtain state inventory of historic places numbers from the state historic preservation division for all historic properties located within a housing project area if an archaeological or architectural survey is conducted as part of the historic preservation review process. If an archaeological inventory survey is conducted before the start of construction, the project proponent shall obtain state inventory of historic places numbers for each historic property identified within the housing project area during archaeological monitoring before completion of construction.
(d) Before any agency or officer of the State or its political subdivisions commences any housing project that may adversely affect a significant historic property, the agency or officer shall make a reasonable and good faith effort to avoid or minimize any effect to the significant historic property. If any adverse effect cannot reasonably be avoided, the agency or officer shall mitigate the adverse effect. Mitigation includes but is not limited to preservation, archaeological data recovery, burial treatment, ethnographic documentation, historic data recovery, and architectural recordation. Mitigation shall be implemented pursuant to terms approved by the department or the relevant island burial council pursuant to section 6E-43.
(e) If previously unidentified human remains are inadvertently discovered during archaeological monitoring or housing project construction, all work within a twenty-foot radius of the:
shall cease and both areas shall be securely covered and protected from the natural elements and adjacent activities; provided that work in other areas of the project may continue and may only proceed in accordance with section 6E-43.6.
(f) If a previously unidentified historic property is identified or previously unanticipated effects are found after the historic preservation review process has concluded during archaeological monitoring or housing project construction, all work within a twenty-foot radius of the discovery shall cease and the agency or officer shall notify the state historic preservation division within forty-eight hours of the discovery.
The notification shall include:
The state historic preservation division shall respond to the notification within two working days.
(g) Upon completion of any identified avoidance, minimization, and mitigation measures, the agency or officer shall submit a report to the state historic preservation division documenting the actions taken.
(h) The department shall adopt rules in accordance with chapter 91 to implement this section.
(i) For the purposes of this section, "housing project" or "project" means a housing project that is developed by, receiving financing from, or situated on land owned by the State or a county. [L 2025, c 311, §1]