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I have many ag tourism nightmare stories, but here is one regarding lack of enforcement, which is a
<br />huge issue facing us with this bill. Close friends of ours bought five acres of Ag land for what
<br />became a thriving mango farm and business. Their new off-island neighbors decided to create
<br />events and lodging venue across the street. After following the County protocol for stopping the
<br />illegal use of their property to no avail, my friends hired a lawyer. They knew their case was tight,
<br />and planned to live in that land their retirement days there forever. Even though they won their case
<br />through an appeal, no agency, including the County, stopped the operation, which continues to this
<br />day. Feeling totally let down after four decades of residence and being fed up with the illegal daily
<br />intrusions of their next door operation, they put their beloved home and farm up for sale.
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<br />As far as visitor count, I think this is the, something I just can’t believe, because every meeting
<br />everyone asked to have a daily visitor count as opposed to a weekly count. Even ten visitors a week
<br />on my five-lot ag subdivision is noticeable. In fact, I had neighbors complain when three
<br />landscapers came in one week to buy my nursery stock. All of them, people I’d known for decades,
<br />all of it being totally legal. Ironically, these were the same neighbors who, despite it being totally
<br />illegal, had tour buses parked on our shared substandard private driveway, noise and live music,
<br />wafting more than a quarter mile up the hill until 11:00 p.m. and plan to continue their “garden
<br />tours” up to five days a week. Neighbors implored them to stop, yet no one, and we called every
<br />agency, no one, including Police or Planning, came to our rescue. Again, it took hiring a lawyer for
<br />the parties to stop. Does this mean a resident will be forced into expensive lawsuits in order to get,
<br />against the County, in order to get them to do their job, especially when enforcement, funds for
<br />enforcement are so much less even now than they were then. That experience is my biggest reason
<br />for skepticism of so-called ag tourism bill since those neighbors first of all weren’t even real
<br />farmers; they had a few pineapples. They were already very wealthy. They had no regard for their
<br />neighbors or the law, which is why no ag visitor count can be self-policed. Nothing about this
<br />really can be self-policed. And the worst part is that if Bill 25 becomes law, most everything my
<br />neighbors were doing that was so annoying to everyone around them, would be legal except the
<br />hours. And again, enforcement is such a huge issue. If that whole operation was illegal before no
<br />one stopped it, why would the County stop the music and intrusions from going past sunset or 6:00
<br />p.m. just because another law was added.
<br />
<br />So my question is whether this bill is for real farmers or for people who want to cash in on tourism.
<br />I just stop understanding why we have this, I understand that Bobby Jean was trying to in some
<br />ways protect small ag businesses, but I think that the problems, that the ability to market and sell the
<br />agricultural products by bona fide farmers is warranted; restrictions to stop the overreach and
<br />insensitivity of those who don’t need or deserve, the benefit of calling operations agricultural need
<br />to be forefront in any ag tourism legislation.
<br />
<br />And that was my testimony. But I think this list is so important. And one of the things that wasn’t
<br />addressed at all is noise. There were so many great things in Bill 266. At the end it’s just, I don’t
<br />know why they were taken out, because they were supported by the public. But there was
<br />amusement rides, ATVs, I mean, these are things that could happen on your property. People asked
<br />there was a 30-person per day limit, rather than per week. My neighbors were bringing 200 to 300
<br />people a day to their ag tours, garden tours they called it, you know, it’s a three-acre parcel, I think
<br />theirs is a three-acre parcel. I think removing the restrictions for revenue is also not a good idea; I
<br />think the revenue from ag tourism should be definitely less than, we are trying to protect, if this bill
<br />is to protect real farmers, then that should be what we are aiming at is increasing farm revenue, not
<br />ag tourism revenue. I appreciate the idea of having meetings with farmers and farm groups; I don’t
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<br />EXHIBIT B
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