Report Title:
Public Lands; Extension of Lease/Payment for Livestock
Description:
Provides for a 15-year lease extension and proper payment for livestock when DLNR exercises its right to use public lands for Saddle Road widening on the County of Hawaii. Also provides that 10% of remaining leased lands can be used for alternative agriculture.
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THE SENATE |
S.B. NO. |
48 |
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TWENTY-FIRST LEGISLATURE, 2001 |
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STATE OF HAWAII |
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A BILL FOR AN ACT
Relating to Public lands.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:
SECTION 1. The legislature finds that the widening of Saddle Road, County of Hawaii, required that the department of land and natural resources withdraw all or a portion of the lands of certain ranchers holding public land leases for pasture or special livestock use. Consequently, the ranchers suffered serious financial losses.
The 2000 legislature in enacting Act 55 recognized that in unique and critical situations, it is sometimes necessary to make exceptions to public land leasing policies. Under this policy established in Act 55, the legislature believes that the case of ranchers affected by the Saddle Road widening project constitutes a unique and critical situation that warrants such an exception.
The purpose of this Act is to provide for an exception to the public land leasing policies of the department of land and natural resources by directing the department to extend, by fifteen years, the leases of the ranchers who were or will be affected by the widening of Saddle Road, County of Hawaii. This Act also allows the department to permit alternative uses of any portion of special livestock or pasture lands affected by withdrawals by the department.
SECTION 2. Section 171-36, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by amending subsection (c) to read as follows:
"(c) The board at any time during the term of any intensive agricultural, aquaculture, special livestock, pasture use, or mariculture lease and when justified by sound economic practices or other circumstances, may permit an alternative agricultural, aquaculture, special livestock, pasture use, or mariculture use or uses for any portion or portions of the land demised. As a condition to permitting alternative uses, the board may require such other modifications, including rental adjustments or changes in the lease as may be necessary to effect or accommodate the alternative use or uses. An alternative use or uses may be allowed by the board upon:
(1) The application of the lessee;
(2) Consent of each holder of record having a security interest in the leasehold; and
(3) A finding by the board that the alternative use or uses are in the public interest."
SECTION 3. Section 171-37, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:
"§171-37 Lease restrictions; intensive agricultural and pasture uses. In addition to the restrictions provided in section 171-36, the following restrictions shall apply to all leases for intensive agricultural and pasture uses:
(1) The lease term shall be not less than fifteen years nor more than thirty-five years, except that if the type of disposition requires the lessee to occupy the premises as the lessee's own personal residence, it may be longer than thirty-five years, but not in excess of seventy-five years, and except in the case of a tree-crop orchard lease the term of which shall not be in excess of forty-five years.
(2) If the land being leased is not immediately productive and requires extensive expenditures for clearing, conditioning of the soil, the securing of water, the planting of grasses, or the construction of improvements, as the result of which a longer term is necessary to amortize the lessee's investment, then the lease term may be longer than thirty-five years, but not in excess of fifty-five years.
(3) The land leased hereunder, or any portion thereof, shall be subject to withdrawal by the board of land and natural resources at any time during the term of the lease with reasonable notice and without compensation, except as provided herein, for public uses or purposes, including residential, commercial, industrial, or resort developments, for constructing new roads or extensions, or changes in line or grade of existing roads, for rights-of-way and easements of all kinds, and shall be subject to the right of the board to remove soil, rock, or gravel as may be necessary for the construction of roads and rights-of-way within or without the demised premises; provided that upon the withdrawal, or upon the taking which causes any portion of the land originally demised to become unusable for the specific use or uses for which it was demised, the rent shall be reduced in proportion to the value of the land withdrawn or made unusable, and if any permanent improvement constructed upon the land by the lessee is destroyed or made unusable in the process of the withdrawal or taking, the proportionate value thereof shall be paid based upon the unexpired term of the lease; provided further that no withdrawal or taking shall be had as to those portions of the land which are then under cultivation with crops until the crops are harvested, unless the board pays to the lessee the value of the crops; and provided further that upon withdrawal any person with a long-term lease shall be compensated for the present value of all permanent improvements in place at the time of withdrawal that were legally constructed upon the land by the lessee to the leased land being withdrawn. In the case of tree crops, the board shall pay to the lessee the residual value of the trees taken and, if there are unharvested crops, the value of the crops also. In the case of livestock, where no replacement lands are made available, the board shall pay to the lessee the difference between the appraised value of breeding animals being marketed and their salvage value and shall also pay the value for forgone progeny where the reproductive life of a female livestock has not expired.
["Tree-crop", as used in this section, shall be exclusive of papaya and banana.]"
SECTION 4. Notwithstanding any law to the contrary, the department of land and natural resources (hereinafter department) shall issue a fifteen-year extension to the following ranchers who have been or will be affected by the widening of Saddle Road, County of Hawaii:
(1) Parker Ranch, lease number 4471;
(2) K.K. Ranch, Inc., lease number 4475;
(3) S.C. Corporation, lease number 4477; and
(4) Boteilho Ent., Inc., lease number 4478.
The department shall also authorize the lessee's to utilize ten per cent of remaining land for alternative agriculture.
SECTION 5. All costs for the issuance of the extended lease shall be paid for by the lessees interested in the lease extension.
SECTION 6. Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken. New statutory material is underscored.
SECTION 7. This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2001.
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INTRODUCED BY: |
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