STAND. COM. REP. NO.1201-02

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2002

RE: S.B. No. 2007

S.D. 2

H.D. 2

 

 

 

Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2002

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Finance, to which was referred S.B. No. 2007, S.D. 2, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO LAND USE,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this bill is to address the mandate in article XI, section 3, of the State Constitution by:

(1) Establishing standards, criteria, and a process for the identification and management of important agricultural lands;

(2) Promoting the usage of rural land use districts as a buffer zone between development pressures and agricultural lands; and

(3) Defining permissible uses within the rural land use district.

This bill also authorizes the counties to permit home occupations in the agricultural district without requiring a state special permit.

The Office of Planning, the Department of Agriculture, and the Hawaii Farm Bureau Federation testified in support of this measure. The County of Hawaii Planning Department offered comments. The City and County of Honolulu Department of Planning and Permitting, Estate of James Campbell, Alexander and Baldwin, Inc., Land Use Research Foundation of Hawaii, Hawaii Leeward Planning Conference, Hawaii's Thousand Friends, Sierra Club, Hawaii Chapter, and one individual opposed this measure.

Your Committee has amended this bill by:

(1) Requiring that there shall be a rebuttable presumption that a project is not intended for farm dwellings and is not agricultural when it contains the following characteristics:

(a) Houses with pools, outdoor jacuzzis, or tennis courts;

(b) Gated or limited entry that restricts access to the general public;

(c) Houses situated along golf course fairways;

(d) Covenants that restrict agricultural practices; or

(e) House prices that exceed the median price of houses in the State;

(2) Specifying that the presumption may be rebutted with evidence demonstrating that agriculture is a real and significant component of each lot and that crop production can pay for mortgage costs;

(3) Specifying that if the counties identify additional agricultural lands to be protected, bona fide farmers on these lands shall be eligible to apply for business-related and real property tax-related agricultural incentives or programs that are available to farmers on important agricultural lands;

(4) Allowing educational ecotourism as a commercial or recreational activity accessory to agriculture in the agricultural district;

(5) Clarifying that any land use petition that is pending prior to April 1, 2002, shall not be subject to the provisions of this bill;

(6) Inserting a purpose section that clarifies the Legislature's intent to fulfill the mandate of article XI, section 3, of the State Constitution; and

(7) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments to correct drafting errors.

Your Committee further amended the provisions relating to the evidence of bona fide agricultural use that must be provided when an applicant proposes to create two or more farm dwellings or lots on lands in the agricultural district by:

(1) Increasing the required number of evidences from two to three;

(2) Including as evidence of agricultural intent, various instruments of conveyance that require lot purchasers to maintain land in agricultural use in conformity with laws and rules;

(3) Combining both an agricultural business plan and agricultural feasibility studies as a single evidence; and

(4) Specifying that evidence of crops in cultivation and the verification of income from agricultural product sales grown on the affected land shall be considered as separate evidences.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Finance that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2007, S.D. 2, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2007, S.D. 2, H.D. 2.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Finance,

 

____________________________

DWIGHT Y. TAKAMINE, Chair