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The Honorable Dominic Yagong, Chairman <br /> and Members of the County Council <br /> Page 3 <br /> Land Use <br /> • Designate and allocate land uses in appropriate proportions and mix and in <br /> keeping with the social, cultural and physical environments of the County. <br /> • Allocate appropriate requested zoning in accordance with the existing or projected <br /> needs of neighborhood, community, region and County. <br /> • Zoning requests shall be reviewed with respect to General Plan designation, <br /> district goals, regional plans, State Land Use District, compatibility with adjacent <br /> zoned uses, availability of public services and utilities, access, and public need. <br /> Economic <br /> • Provide residents with opportunities to improve their quality of life through <br /> economic development that enhances the County's natural and social <br /> environments. <br /> • Economic development and improvement shall be in balance with the physical, <br /> social and cultural environments of the island of Hawai`i. <br /> • Provide an economic environment that allows new, expanded, or improved <br /> economic opportunities that are compatible with the County's cultural, natural and <br /> social environment. <br /> The major concern in allowing a rezoning of agricultural land that creates smaller <br /> lot sizes is that this will reduce the potential use of the land for commercial agriculture by <br /> fragmenting the land into areas too small to be farmed on a commercial scale. While a <br /> few crops can be intensively cultivated on very small acreages, usually these crops have a <br /> very limited market. Reducing the size of the lots can reduce the range of potential <br /> agricultural uses and the range of market opportunities for those crops. At the same time, <br /> a strong demand exists in the real estate market for lots in agricultural areas by purchasers <br /> who are interested in large -lot residential homesites or for speculation. The desire for <br /> these "gentleman's estates" tends to drive up the price of agricultural land making it less <br /> affordable for commercial farmers. <br /> Most agricultural rezonings in Hawai`i County in the last twenty years have <br /> resulted in subdivisions where the primary use is residential, not agricultural. For the <br /> most part, these rezonings did not occur on prime agricultural land or on what is now <br />