Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2003

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Water, Land, and Agriculture, to which was referred S.B. No. 530 entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to authorize counties to permit newly defined "home occupations" in agricultural districts without requiring a special permit.

Testimony in support of this measure was submitted by the Land Use Commission, the County of Hawaii's Planning Department, and the Hawaii Association of Realtors. Testimony in support of the measure, with amendments, was submitted by the Office of Planning. Testimony in support of the intent of this measure was submitted by the Board of Agriculture. Testimony in opposition to the measure was submitted by Hawaii's Thousand Friends, the Maui County Farm Bureau, and the Sierra Club.

Your Committee finds that county planning departments are best equipped and positioned to regulate accessory uses within approved farm dwellings. To remove redundancy, this measure eliminates the need for special use permits for some home occupations in agricultural or rural land use districts.

Your Committee also finds that amendments proposed by the State Office of Planning would clarify the measure. The Office of Planning suggests, and your Committee concurs, that changing some language would assure that the measure not create a new class of allowed single family dwellings on agricultural lots. Your Committee further amends the measure to delete a reference to accessory structures because the particular home occupation described would be conducted by a resident of a dwelling, not a resident of an accessory structure.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Water, Land, and Agriculture that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 530, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 530, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Transportation, Military Affairs and Government Operations.