STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1264

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2025

RE: S.B. No. 1099

H.D. 1

Honorable Nadine K. Nakamura

Speaker, House of Representatives

Thirty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2025

State of Hawaii

Madame:

Your Committee on Water & Land, to which was referred S.B. No. 1099 entitled:

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

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to authorize the Land Use Commission to designate lands as Important Agricultural Lands if a county fails to identify and recommend Important Agricultural Lands by December 31, 2027.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Land Use Commission and one individual. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of Agriculture and Hawai‘i Farm Bureau.

Your Committee finds that there is a need to support and maintain a strategic agricultural land resource base that can support diverse agricultural activities and opportunities in the State. One means of supporting agriculture in the State is through the designation of Important Agricultural Lands. To facilitate and expedite the designation of Important Agricultural Lands, this measure creates a deadline by which counties may identify and recommend certain lands for designation as Important Agricultural Lands and, in any county that fails to do so, allows the Land Use Commission to designate certain lands as Important Agricultural Lands and adopt maps for those designated lands.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Clarifying that the Land Use Commission may designate county or state lands as Important Agricultural Lands in counties that fail to identify and recommend Important Agricultural Lands by December 31, 2027;

(2) Changing the effective date to July 1, 3000, to encourage further discussion; and

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

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Water & Land that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1099, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1099, H.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Agriculture & Food Systems.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Water & Land,

____________________________

MARK J. HASHEM, Chair