Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2005

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Water, Land, and Ocean Resources and Agriculture, to which was referred H.B. No. 328 entitled:

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this bill is to appropriate funds to match a grant from the Farmland Protection Program to acquire the development rights for the agricultural lands surrounding the Kukaniloko Birthstones State Historical Site in Wahiawa to ensure the proper protection of this site.

The Office of Hawaiian Affairs, ILWU Local 142, Hawaii Farm Bureau Federation, and members of the community testified in support of this measure. The Board of Land and Natural Resources testified in support of the intent of this measure.

Your Committees find that this measure is necessary to ensure that this historically and culturally significant site is properly preserved to the fullest extent possible. Your Committees also find that creating a greater open space buffer will help to accomplish this goal, and will allow access to those who are linked to this site through ancestral ties.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Water, Land, and Ocean Resources and Agriculture that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 328 and recommend that it pass Second Reading and be referred to the Committee on Finance.