STAND. COM. REP. NO. 397

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 1443

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Shan S. Tsutsui

President of the Senate

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2011

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committee on Water, Land, and Housing, to which was referred S.B. No. 1443 entitled:

 

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

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

 

     (1)  Require the Departments of Agriculture and Land and Natural Resources to identify and map certain public lands to be considered for transfer from the Department of Land and Natural Resources to the Department of Agriculture;

 

     (2)  Establish a time table for the transfer of those parcels that have been identified and mapped;

 

     (3)  Require the Department of Agriculture to identify, of those transferred public lands, which lands should be considered for designation by the Land Use Commission as Important Agricultural Lands;

 

(4)  Clarify that public lands that are transferred from the Department of Land and Natural Resources to the Department of Agriculture are subject to the standards established in chapter 205, Hawaii Revised Statutes, for identifying and designating Important Agricultural Lands; and

 

(5)  Require the Board of Agriculture to determine which incentives or uses for Important Agricultural Lands are to be made available to leases managed under the Board's Agricultural Parks and Non-Agricultural Park Lands programs.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Land and Natural Resources and the Department of Agriculture.  Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Land Use Research Foundation of Hawaii.  Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Hawaii Farm Bureau Federation.

 

     Your Committee finds that the purpose, rules, and management of public lands under the Board of Agriculture's Agricultural Parks and Non-Agricultural Park Lands programs are unmatched in their support of agricultural production and, unlike the privately owned lands under the Important Agricultural Lands legislation, are not subject to reclassification, subdivision, lack of monitoring, or special permitted uses.  Your Committee further finds that the public land management programs of the Department of Agriculture closely emulate, and even surpass, the Important Agricultural Lands legislation in their support for agricultural production in Hawaii.  Your Committee also finds that this measure protects the integrity of these vital programs and assures maximum support for agriculture in our State.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for purposes of clarity and consistency.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Water, Land, and Housing that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1443, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1443, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Agriculture.

 


Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Water, Land, and Housing,

 

 

 

____________________________

DONOVAN M. DELA CRUZ, Chair