Bill Text: HI SB2781 | 2010 | Regular Session | Amended

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Bill Title: Relating to Agricultural Lands

Spectrum: Moderate Partisan Bill (Democrat 5-1)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2010-02-10 - (S) Report adopted; Passed Second Reading, as amended (SD 1) and referred to JGO. [SB2781 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2010-SB2781-Amended.html

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STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2123

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 2781

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fifth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2010

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committee on Water, Land, Agriculture, and Hawaiian Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 2781 entitled:

 

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

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose of this measure is to authorize the Legislature to designate, by concurrent resolution, certain agricultural lands as important agricultural lands, where the Legislature finds that the designation is necessary to protect agricultural lands, to promote diversified agriculture, or to control future growth, development, and land use.

 

     Testimony in support of this measure was submitted by two private entities and two individuals.  Testimony in opposition was submitted by one state agency, one private organization, and one business.  One state agency submitted comments.

 

     Written testimony presented to the Committee may be reviewed on the Legislature's website.

 

     Your Committee finds that since the State's land use law was enacted in 1961, the lands most suited for intensive agricultural use have declined from 359,690 acres (class A, 125,160 acres; class B, 234,530 acres) in 1960 to 172,094 acres (class A, 56,653 acres; class B, 115,441 acres) in 2007.

 

     Your Committee further finds that the inventory of lands that are suitable for agriculture is essentially fixed.  Unlike other land uses that may be redirected through the development of infrastructure or other amenities, agricultural lands cannot be manufactured when the demand for the lands increases.  It is therefore doubly important to protect this valuable and very finite resource, and to ensure that the State honors the mandate of Article XI, Section 3, of the State Constitution to "conserve and protect agricultural lands, promote diversified agriculture, increase agricultural self-sufficiency and assure the availability of agriculturally suitable lands."

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Requiring the concurrent resolution to be adopted by a two-thirds vote of both houses of the Legislature;

 

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

 

     (3)  Amending the effective date to July 1, 2040 for the purpose of encouraging further discussion.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Water, Land, Agriculture, and Hawaiian Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2781, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2781, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary and Government Operations.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Water, Land, Agriculture, and Hawaiian Affairs,

 

		____________________________ CLAYTON HEE, Chair