Report Title:

Waialua Agribusiness Incubator

Description:

Authorizes the issuance of GO bonds for the University of Hawaii for the planning, design, and construction of an agribusiness incubator in the Waialua District.

THE SENATE

S.B. NO.

1456

TWENTY-THIRD LEGISLATURE, 2005

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 


 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

RELATING TO THE WAIALUA AGRIBUSINESS INCUBATOR.

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

SECTION 1. House Concurrent Resolution No. 260, adopted by the twenty-second legislature, regular session of 2004, requested the college of tropical agriculture and human resources of the University of Hawaii to develop and manage an agribusiness incubator in the Waialua district to further the development of agribusiness in Hawaii.

The legislature finds that the abundant and rich agricultural land in the Waialua district provides a particularly suitable location for an agribusiness incubator that will support entrepreneurs in developing new and enhanced methods for the manufacture of new agricultural products.

The legislature further finds that the development of an agribusiness incubator in the Waialua district will further the State's responsibility to promote diversified agriculture and increase agricultural self-sufficiency.

SECTION 2. (a) The director of finance is authorized to issue general obligation bonds in the sum of $13,250,000, or so much thereof as may be necessary, and the same sum, or so much as may be necessary, is appropriated for fiscal years 2005-2006, and 2006-2007, for the design, planning, and construction of an agribusiness incubator in the Waialua district.

(b) The agribusiness incubator shall be developed and managed by the University of Hawaii and may provide the following:

(1) Laboratory space to include an experimental food laboratory;

(2) Offices;

(3) Conference rooms;

(4) A distance education facility;

(5) A multi-media classroom;

(6) A small facility for commercial food processing;

(7) Facilities for commercial crop production operations;

(8) Greenhouses;

(9) Field plots for plants and animals;

(10) Displays of tropical fruit trees, ornamental and landscape plants, and endangered native plants;

(11) A visitor center with an eco-system display for students and eco-tourists; and

(12) Other facilities, programs, and purposes to be determined by the University of Hawaii.

(c) The University of Hawaii shall negotiate a memorandum of understanding with Dole Food Company, Inc. which shall provide for:

(1) The conveyance, in fee simple and for nominal consideration, of up to three acres of agricultural-zoned land in the Waialua district formerly used by Dole, which shall be subdivided and used for the agribusiness incubator facility; and

(2) The lease of other lands within the Waialua district to support the facility, upon the appropriation of funds by the legislature for the design, planning, and construction of the agribusiness incubator.

The memorandum of understanding shall include a provision that its terms shall expire and the memorandum of understanding shall terminate if the appropriation provided by this Act is not encumbered by June 30, 2007.

SECTION 3. The appropriation made for the capital improvement project authorized by this Act shall not lapse at the end of the fiscal biennium for which the appropriation is made; provided that all moneys from the appropriation unencumbered as of June 30, 2008, shall lapse as of that date.

SECTION 4. The sum appropriated shall be expended by the University of Hawaii for the purposes of this Act.

SECTION 5. This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2005.

INTRODUCED BY:

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