STAND. COM. REP. NO.  1136

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                , 2007

 

RE:   H.B. No. 408

      H.D. 2

 

 

 

 

Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Fourth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2007

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committee on Judiciary, to which was referred H.B. No. 408, H.D. 1, entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO AGRICULTURE,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose of this bill is to create a buffer zone to protect farming operations by prohibiting industrial, commercial, or residential development within an unspecified number of feet from the property line of any parcel in which farming operations are being conducted.

 

     The Hawaii Farm Bureau Federation and Maui County Farm Bureau supported this bill.  The Hawaii Agriculture Research Center supported the intent of this measure.  The Department of Planning and Permitting of the City and County of Honolulu, Hawaii Association of REALTORS, Kuilima Resort Company, and the Land Use Research Foundation of Hawaii opposed this bill.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Narrowing the scope of the prohibition by specifying that the farming operations contained in this bill are bona fide farming operations that have been conducted for at least an unspecified number of years prior to the development;

 

     (2)  Inserting a definition of "bona fide farming operations"; and

 

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

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 408, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 408, H.D. 2.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary,

 

 

 

 

____________________________

TOMMY WATERS, Chair