Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2003

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Judiciary, to which was referred S.B. No. 255, S.D. 2, entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this bill is to invalidate private agreements that purport to restrict or prohibit agricultural activities on lands classified as agricultural by the Land Use Commission.

The Department of Agriculture, the Hawaii Agriculture Research Center, the Hawaii Farm Bureau, Hawaii's Thousand Friends, the Kauai County Farm Bureau, the Sierra Club, Hawaii Chapter, and a concerned individual testified in support of this measure. Two concerned individuals submitted testimony in opposition to this measure. The Hawaii Association of Realtors submitted testimony in support of the intent of this measure with concern over its impact on existing agreements.

This measure serves overwhelmingly important public interests in maintaining open space and agricultural lands. Agriculture preserves Hawaii’s unique rural communities, generates income for farmers, their employees, and their families, and provides sustenance for Hawaii’s people.

Your Committee appreciates that the constitutions of the United States and of the State of Hawaii protect against deprivation of private property for public use without just compensation or due process of law. This measure assures that agricultural lands can be used for agricultural purposes. This is not a "regulatory taking" of private property. Any person who acquires land classified as "agricultural" would reasonably anticipate that agricultural activity would occur there.

Your Committee recognizes that competing interests exist in "agricultural subdivisions" where some people engage in agricultural activities while others seek a pastoral residential atmosphere. Your Committee reluctantly decided, after giving serious consideration to retroactive application, that an impairments of contracts provision would be required.

Your Committee has amended this measure to:

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 255, S.D. 2, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 255, S.D. 2, H.D. 1.