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Rural District <br /> In general, we believe the County should utilize the rural district to a greater degree in General <br /> Plan designations. At the State level I believe the intent is to make the rural district more "user <br /> friendly" to agriculture with right to farm legislation, etc. It's important to understand that <br /> property taxes will not rise if Ag use (dedication) continues on rural classified lands. The County <br /> has the mapping capability to overlay all existing 1-3 acre Ag subdivisions on the General Plan <br /> maps. We strongly support reclassifying all of these lands as County General Plan Rural, <br /> maintainin the current zonin~densi~. Please request the Planning Department to prepare <br /> these maps as a point of discussion. <br /> Ag Workin~c Group <br /> The attached Standards and Cntena - Ag Working Group Recommendations will give you a <br /> sense of the discussion taking place at the State level. This is, a work in pro ress and on>~ a <br /> draft at this point. I also included comments from Bob Wagner with the American Farmland <br /> Trust who reviewed and commented on the draft Standards and Criteria. The Ag Working Group <br /> website has a lot of useful information: htt~://ctahr.hawaii,edu/ctahr200~ww~ <br /> Plan Sim lification <br /> We support Council Chair Elarionoff's suggestion of separating the current text (supporting <br /> material) from the ordinance to create a more simplified document. The current text is <br /> outdated, often inconsistent in the depth of treatment between districts, and would require a <br /> major effort to revisit and revise. We believe concentrating on community development plans to <br /> implement more detailed and comprehensive planning in the future would be a better use of <br /> County resources. <br /> Additional Research <br /> We have also helped support a review of the General Plan by Professor David Callles who will <br /> submit his comments directly to the County. At this point we take no position on these <br /> comments other than to regard them as helpful input for consideration. <br /> <br /> Thank you for the opportunity [o comments and we look forward to working with you on this <br /> important task. <br /> Regards, <br /> ~`a ~ <br /> <br /> John B. Ray <br /> President <br /> Hawaii Leeward Planning Conference <br /> Page 3 of 3 <br /> <br />