STAND. COM. REP. NO. 608

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 340

       S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Ninth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2017

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committees on Public Safety, Intergovernmental, and Military Affairs and Agriculture and Environment, to which was referred S.B. No. 340 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO URBAN AGRICULTURE,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to require the counties to incorporate urban agriculture principles and policies in land use planning and to allow urban agriculture as a residential use in a residentially designated zone.

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawaii Farm Bureau, Hawaii Farmers Union United, EcoTipping Points Project, Pulama Lana‘i, and two individuals.  Your Committees received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Department of Planning and Permitting, City and County of Honolulu; and Planning Department, County of Hawai‘i.  Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Department of Agriculture and two individuals.

Your Committees find that supporting agricultural development, in a variety of forms, is essential for the future health and well-being of the State.  Urban agriculture is a type of agriculture that focuses on the cultivating, processing, and distributing of food in or around urban areas.  Supporting urban agriculture will help the State achieve greater self-sustainability.  Moreover, urban agriculture can make effective agricultural use of typically smaller land areas that would otherwise not contribute to local food production.  Given the State's limited agricultural lands and its ever-growing urban centers, it is essential that the counties plan for and allow urban agriculture.

Your Committees, however, note the concerns raised in written testimony regarding the measure's overly broad definition of "urban agriculture" and the limitations created on the counties' abilities to effectively manage urban agriculture in residential areas.  Accordingly, your Committees have amended this measure by:

     (1)  Removing all language:

          (A)  Establishing "urban agriculture" as a residential use of property; and

          (B)  Defining "urban agriculture"; and

     (2)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Public Safety, Intergovernmental, and Military Affairs and Agriculture and Environment that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 340, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 340, S.D. 1, and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Public Safety, Intergovernmental, and Military Affairs and Agriculture and Environment,

________________________________ MIKE GABBARD, Chair

________________________________ CLARENCE K. NISHIHARA, Chair