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But what this is, this is amendment to the Zoning Code; and what we want to do with it is clarify
<br />what kinds of tourism and tour activities and sales can be done on agricultural property as an
<br />accessory use to agriculture. Thiswas, and theres two sides to this issue. On the one hand we
<br />have a lot of farmers and farming entities that want to be able to havesome kind of accessory
<br />tours and sales on their property as an enhancement to their agriculture. Typical kinds of things
<br />that might be involved here is that they would have visitors stop by, they would show them the
<br />agriculture, they showthem the fields, they show them how they process coffee, for example;
<br />and they might have a sales area where they sold some items to visitors. They might charge for
<br />this or it might be free.
<br />There were also some concerns about this kind of activity from people in the neighborhood.
<br />There can be traffic, there can be tour busses. And one of the problems right now is that we
<br />dont really have a bright line for whats allowed and whats not allowed. We, those of you that
<br />have been on the Commission for a year or more had the Doutor Coffee Special Permit
<br />application,forexample.Andthatwasanincident,asituation,wheretheDepartmentdecided
<br />that what this particular operation was doing fell on the side, that needed a special permit. That is
<br />it had some facilities that were built specifically for the visitors, that they were having regularly
<br />scheduled tours, that they were having busses come in and go, and that they wanted to have some
<br />sales of nonagricultural products.
<br />On the other hand, there are quite a few operations, particularly in Kona, that are not that
<br />different that we have never investigated or cited. Typically, we havent had complaints of them.
<br />Were generally aware of them but Id have to say that they are, in some respects, not that
<br />different from what weve cited as a violation. So we tried to come up with a bill that would
<br />give a clear guidance to people and draw some lines as to what you could do as a farmer and
<br />what you cant do.
<br />Clearly now without a special permit who can have a roadside stand, you have to have, you saw
<br />somebody come here with a roadside stand earlier. You can sell, you can have a roadside stand
<br />for produce that you grow on your site and you can sell that produce. Thats about the extent of
<br />whats clearly allowed under the present Zoning Code. So this bill, although it has a lot of
<br />sections to it, the basic idea is that you can have an agricultural tourism operation on a scale of a
<br />maximum of 40,000 visitors a year, which is a little over 100 people a day. The maximum size
<br />of facility that you can have specifically for the visitors would be 1,000 square feet. Now this
<br />doesnt mean that all your buildings have to be under 1,000 square feet. For example, if you had
<br />a big warehouse that, say, like a banana packing shed that was 10,000 square feet, you could
<br />have an agriculture, you could still have agricultural tourism in that. But the portion then where
<br />you say seating for people, or a sales area, or something specifically devoted to agricultural
<br />tourism, could be a maximum of 1,000 square feet.
<br />You also are, one of the lines that we draw is that you cant do special events like weddings,
<br />catered parties, that sort of thing, on a commercial level under the agricultural tourism permitted
<br />activity. So there would be one level of Ag Tourism in this bill thats basically a permitted use.
<br />The level of control, there still is some level of control for this, is that they have to come in and
<br />apply for plan approval. So they would have to come in administratively to the Department and
<br />apply and show that they fit within what is allowed as basically a permitted use. One of the
<br />things that were especially concerned about is traffic and loading. So, at that point, we would
<br />look at that, if they had a safe place to bring traffic into the farm, into their facility, and load and
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