STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1081

                                   Honolulu, Hawaii
                                                     , 1999

                                   RE:  H.B. No. 179
                                        H.D. 2
                                        S.D. 1




Honorable Norman Mizuguchi
President of the Senate
Twentieth State Legislature
Regular Session of 1999
State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committees on Water, Land, and Hawaiian Affairs and
Economic Development, to which was referred H.B. No. 179, H.D. 2,
entitled: 

     "A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO AGRICULTURAL LANDS,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this measure is to establish a commission to
identify and classify lands in Hawaii that are of agricultural
importance.

     Specifically, the measure creates a State of Hawaii
Important Agricultural Lands Commission (Commission) to:

     (1)  Identify important agricultural lands;

     (2)  Address the intent of article XI, section 3, of the
          Hawaii State Constitution, to conserve and protect
          agricultural lands and promote diversified agriculture
          within the context of Hawaii's changing circumstances;
          and 

     (3)  Examine related land use issues.

     The Department of Agriculture, the Department of Land and
Natural Resources, the Land Use Commission, the Department of
Business, Economic Development, and Tourism, the City and County
of Honolulu's Department of Planning and Permitting, the Land Use

 
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Research Foundation, and the Hawaii Farm Bureau testified in
support of the measure.  Hawaii's Thousand Friends, Plan To
Protect Kona, the Hawaii Leeward Planning Conference, a member of
the Hawaii County Council, and four concerned citizens testified
in opposition to the measure.

     The Commission would be administratively attached to the
Legislative Reference Bureau and comprised of thirteen voting
members as follows:

     (1)  Three members representing the following organizations,
          one from each organization, appointed by the governor:

          (A)  The Land Use Research Foundation;

          (B)  The Office of Hawaiian Affairs; and

          (C)  The Hawaii Farm Bureau Federation;

     (2)  One member representing agricultural workers;

     (3)  One member representing a conservation organization;
          and

     (4)  Serving as ex-officio members:

          (A)  The Chairperson of the Board of Agriculture;

          (B)  The Chairperson of the Board of Land and Natural
               Resources;

          (C)  The Director of the Office of Planning in the
               Department of Business, Economic Development, and
               Tourism;

          (D)  The Director of the University of Hawaii's College
               of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources; and

          (E)  The Planning Directors of each of the four
               counties.

     The Chairperson of the Board of Agriculture would serve as
the chair of the Commission.

     Under the measure as received by your Committees, the
Commission is charged with the responsibility to identify
important agricultural lands based on one or more of the
agricultural land rating systems described in the 1986 Land
Evaluation Site Assessment (LESA) commission report and recommend

 
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incentives for landowners to keep their lands in agricultural
production, which may include tax exemptions and agricultural
easements.

     The Commission must also categorize important agricultural
lands into the three classes, prime agricultural lands, unique
agricultural lands, and other important agricultural lands.
Urban lands would be excluded from the review.  The Commission
must complete its deliberations, submit a report on its findings
and recommendations to the 2000 Legislature, and cease to exist
on June 30, 2000.

     The measure also appropriates funds to fund the activities
of the Commission and to pay for geographic information system
improvements and any specialized spatial analysis necessary to
meet the mapping and analytical needs of the Commission,
including equipment and data acquisition, conversion, and
interpretation.

     Your Committees find that Article XI, Section 3, of the
Hawaii State Constitution provides for standards, criteria, and
procedures that are designed to conserve and protect agricultural
lands and assure the long-term availability of agriculturally
suitable lands.  These lands are critical to the long-term
viability of agriculture as a major export industry and as a
means to increase Hawaii's self-sufficiency and diversification
in agriculture.

     In 1986, the LESA Commission submitted its final report to
the legislature in accordance with Act 273, Session Laws of
Hawaii 1983.  The report presented the LESA Commission's
findings, conclusions, and recommendations concerning:

     (1)  The development of the initial inventory of the State's
          "important agricultural lands" (IAL);

     (2)  A classification system to identify these lands; and 

     (3)  A process to review requests for a change in
          designation of specific parcels from IAL to urban or to
          other uses.

     The report also provided an implementation framework and
recommended amendments to existing state law to execute the
proposed LESA system.

     Since 1986, many bills have been introduced that attempted
to implement the LESA system.  For various reasons, none of these

 
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bills have succeeded in meeting all the needs and objectives of
the affected parties.

     Additionally, since the completion of the LESA Commission
report in 1986, the profile of Hawaii's agricultural lands has
changed dramatically.  Such events include the dramatic industry
shift from a plantation-type system with an emphasis on sugarcane
production to the current focus on small scale and diversified
agriculture and Hawaii's economic decline through the 1990s.

     In the face of changing times and circumstances, your
Committees find that there is a real need to reassess the system
and criteria recommended by the 1986 LESA Commission.  Your
Committees further find that updating the 1986 LESA report will
provide a mechanism by which to fulfill the intent and purpose of
Article XI, Section 3, of the Hawaii State Constitution, which
seeks to conserve and protect agricultural lands.

     In reviewing the measure as received by your Committees, the
measure did not seem to clearly articulate the direction the
State's rapidly evolving agricultural industry is to take.  Your
Committees believe that in order to realize a goal for the
State's agricultural industry, we must first decide what we would
like to achieve.

     Accordingly, your Committees have amended the measure by
broadening the scope of the review to include an update of the
1986 LESA Commission report and the recommended agricultural
production goals contained therein.

     Your Committees believe that the information that will be
provided by the requirements of the amended measure would be more
useful in determining Hawaii's agricultural and economic future.

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your
Committees on Water, Land, and Hawaiian Affairs and Economic
Development that are attached to this report, your Committees are
in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 179, H.D. 2, as
amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the
form attached hereto as H.B. No. 179, H.D. 2, S.D. 1, and be
referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.


 
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                                   Respectfully submitted on
                                   behalf of the members of the
                                   Committees on Water, Land, and
                                   Hawaiian Affairs and Economic
                                   Development,



____________________________       ______________________________
LORRAINE R. INOUYE, Chair          COLLEEN HANABUSA, Chair

 
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