Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2005

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Housing, to which was referred S.B. No. 953 entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to require the disclosure of nearby agricultural lands in the sale of residential real property.

The Department of Agriculture and City and County of Honolulu testified in support of this measure. The Hawaii Association of Realtors opposed the measure.

Currently, the law requires residential property sellers to make certain disclosure to buyers, including the subject property's location within areas that render it vulnerable to floods and tsunami inundation, and expose it to noise and flight activity. This measure establishes an additional requirement to disclose whether the subject property is within one thousand lineal feet of land zoned or classified for agricultural use. Your Committee finds that this requirement will help to alert potential purchasers of nearby agricultural activity and the conditions that accompany it, such as the presence of chemicals and fertilizers, dust, noise, and odors.

Your Committee further finds that the county planning commissions do not prepare, adopt, or maintain zoning maps. Therefore, your Committee has amended this measure to clarify that the county maps used to ascertain the zoning or classification of land in conducting the disclosure are maps adopted by the counties, rather than maps prepared by the county planning commission.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Housing that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 953, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 953, S.D. 1.