STAND. COM. REP. NO. 969-04

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2004

RE: S.B. No. 3052

S.D. 2

H.D. 1

 

Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2004

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Water, Land Use, and Hawaiian Affairs and Agriculture, to which was referred S.B. No. 3052, S.D. 2, entitled:

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

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this bill is to implement Article XI, section 3, of the State Constitution, that mandates the Legislature to identify important agricultural lands (IALs). This bill, among other things:

(1) Establishes:

(A) Policies and procedures for identifying and managing important agricultural lands (IALs);

(B) Standards and criteria for the identification of IALs;

(C) Establishes standards and criteria for the reclassification or rezoning of IALs;

(D) Policies for incentives for the long-term or permanent retention of IALs for agricultural use; and

(E) A process by which the Land Use Commission (LUC) considers the county's identification and mapping of IALs in designating IALs;

(2) Requires the county to submit its IAL recommendations to the LUC within two years after receiving state funds for the identification and mapping of IALs; and

(3) Permits holiday or agriculture-related special event activities and agricultural tourism on agricultural lands for the enjoyment, education, and involvement of visitors;

(4) Directs the Agribusiness Development Corporation to convene a task force to develop incentives to promote the viability of IALs and appropriates an unspecified sum for that purpose;

(5) Appropriates to each county an unspecified amount for the identification and mapping of IALs; and

(6) Expresses the intent that the designation of IALs by the LUC take effect only upon the enactment of incentives for IALs.

The Hawaii Leeward Planning Conference, Big Island Council, and Matsuda Fukuyama Farms, supported this bill. The American Planning Association, Hawaii Chapter, Hawaii Association of Realtors, Nalo Farms, and an individual supported the intent of this measure. The Board of Land and Natural Resources, Department of Agriculture (DOA), LUC, Office of Planning (OP), Hawaii Farm Bureau Federation, and the Department of Planning and Permitting of the City and County of Honolulu supported the intent of this bill with amendments. The Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Castle & Cooke Land Company, Dole Food Company, Life of the Land, and Alexander & Baldwin, Inc., opposed this bill. Kamehameha Schools, Land Use Research Foundation of Hawaii, Maui Land & Pineapple Company, Inc., Sierra Club, Hawaii Chapter, Planning Department of the County of Hawaii, Hawaii Cattlemen's Council, Inc., and the Maui County Farm Bureau commented on this measure.

Testimony on this bill indicates strong support and a preference for H.B. 2800, H.D.1., which is based on the outstanding work of the Agricultural Working Group (Working Group). Your Committees again express their deep appreciation to the Working Group and its approximately 120 statewide participants, including representatives from state and county governments, private organizations, farm groups, landowners, conservationists, and individual farmers, who contributed countless hours to further the resolution of the complex and long-standing issues surrounding IALs.

Although it is problematic in light of the legislative process to link the effectuation of the designation of IALs to the establishment of incentives, your Committees recognize that incentives will contribute to the overall success of the IAL designation process. While a voluntary IAL designation system where landowners select and designate all or portions of their lands as IALs appears reasonable in concept, for who better than the landowners would know whether their lands are IALs, your Committees have reservations on the total acceptance of such a system. A system where a regulated state agency, such as the LUC, is the ultimate designator of IALs has a number of cogent merits. It would comply with the constitutional mandate that the State identify IALs. The LUC with its knowledge and expertise in the regulation of land matters would significantly contribute to an IAL designation process that is state-wide, coordinated, and in the best interest of the State as a whole.

Your Committees have given much consideration in attempting to balance the interest of all stakeholders and agree that H.B. No. 2800, H.D. 1, with further amendments, is the vehicle that will cover the greatest distance and addresses the most issues in this work in progress. Accordingly, your Committees have amended this bill by incorporating provisions of H.B. No. 2800, H.D. 1, with additional amendments. The amended bill, among other things:

(1) Provides an additional IAL designation process that allows landowners to volunteer lands for IAL designation to the county and LUC within 18 months after the enactment of this bill and authorizes the county to adopt rules to govern the process;

(2) With respect to the incentive program:

(A) Provides that the identification of IALs by the LUC is contingent upon the enactment of legislation enacting incentives for IALs;

(B) Provides an agricultural infrastructure improvement tax credit for improvements made to agricultural infrastructure on IALs;

(C) Requires DOA with the assistance of the Hawaii Farm Bureau Federation, rather than the Agribusiness Development Corporation task force, to develop and recommend agricultural incentive proposals; and

(D) Reduces from five to three years when state and county agencies must review the effectiveness of protection and incentive measures enacted for IALs;

(3) Expands the standards and criteria for identification of IALs to include:

(A) Land fitting any one of the standards and volunteered by the landowner for IAL designation; and

(B) Land producing sustained high agricultural yields for crops, livestock, or timber, when treated and managed according to accepted farming methods and technology;

(4) Prohibits lands that have been designated for urban use by the State or county from being identified and mapped as IALs by the county;

(5) Clarifies that the county planning department's report on its IALs recommendations to the county council shall show how its map relates to, supports, and is consistent with:

(A) The IAL standards and criteria;

(B) The comments received from government agencies and other participants in the county IALs designating process;

(C) The viability of existing and emerging agribusinesses; and

(D) The county's adopted land use plans, as applied to both the identification of and exclusion of IALs from the designation;

(6) Lengthens the time from 90 days to 120 days that the LUC has to act upon a county's IALs map and report;

(7) Adds the requirement that the LUC shall include in its report of IAL maps adopted, a finding relating to the availability of IALs incentives enacted by the Legislature;

(8) Authorizes the LUC to designate other IALs in accordance with established standards and criteria, if the LUC finds that the county has failed to:

(A) Identify IALs using the IALs' criteria;

(B) Follow public process requirements; and

(C) Make its IALs recommendations in a timely manner;

(9) Requires the county to refer any special permit application involving IALs to the DOA and OP for review and comment;

(10) Revises standards and criteria relating to land use district boundary amendments or rezoning actions that involve IALs, including deleting:

(A) Whether the action involves lands no longer in agriculture production or for which a supply of nonpotable water is not readily available; and

(B) The degree to which the action adversely impacts IALs' use policies and growth patterns as reflected in the county general, development, and community plans;

(11) Requires the periodic review of IALs maps to seriously consider the removal of IAL designation for lands that have insufficient available water;

(12) Requires the LUC to:

(A) Process district boundary amendments involving IALs;

(B) Approve county special permits for land designated as an IAL; and

(C) Consider the established IAL standards and criteria in reviewing a petition for reclassification of district boundaries;

(13) Clarifies that the county has jurisdiction over land less than 15 acres in the agriculture district that is not designated IALs;

(14) Makes county special permits affecting IALs subject to the approval of the LUC and requires the county to transmit a copy of the special permit records;

(15) Provides that IALs may be subdivided into leasehold lots for solely agricultural uses and are exempted from county subdivision ordinances;

(16) Deletes provisions permitting agricultural tourism activities and holiday or agriculture-related special events in agricultural districts;

(17) Replaces the unspecified sums appropriated to each county for the cost of identifying IALs with a $2,000,000 appropriation to DOA to disburse to counties that submit satisfactory work plans for the identification of IALs; and

(18) Changes the effective date of the Act to July 1, 2004.

Your Committees have also amended this bill by making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for style, clarity, and consistency.

Lastly, your Committees, recognizing the lands in the agricultural district as a valuable resource and realizing that lands in the agricultural district will be designated IALs, declare that it is the intent of this bill that the lands remaining in the agricultural district after the designation of IALs remain in the agricultural district.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Water, Land Use, and Hawaiian Affairs and Agriculture that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 3052, S.D. 2, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 3052, S.D. 2, H.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Finance.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Water, Land Use, and Hawaiian Affairs and Agriculture,

 

____________________________

FELIPE P. ABINSAY, JR., Chair

____________________________

EZRA R. KANOHO, Chair