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IAL ISSUES INCLUDING INFORMATION FIRST PUBLISHED AT THE CDP MEETING <br />ON 5-25-16 & RELATED COMMENTS <br />2B. State vs. County IAL: The CDP differentiates County IAL (which would govern land use <br />changes requested in the future); vs. State IAL which is a program that governs IAL parcels <br />more broadly. Regardless of differences, there will come a time when 1) all or some of the IAL <br />parcels included in the CDP will become part of the General Plan; and 2) when Hawaii County <br />will have to submit a list of IAL parcels to the State Land Use Commission (LUC) as the state <br />program progresses. Once the IAL parcels and LUPAG maps are part of the General Plan, any <br />change to the IAL in the General Plan will require a Environmental Assessment (EA) which <br />may cost as much as $100,000 to procure. And if the County uses the list of County IAL <br />parcels to report to the LUC, the County IAL parcels will be in the State program. At that point <br />any changes that are requested in the State designation will be equally expensive and time <br />consuming to change. Also, given the nature of the IAL program, once a parcel is in IAL, it is <br />unlikely that changes will be approved. Once in the State program, the allowed uses for any <br />parcel designated IAL will be limited by the State (and likely by County zoning) to strict <br />agricultural uses: an example of the uses that might be allowed for IAL when the program is <br />operational is found in https://Ieaiscan.com/Hl/text/HB1361/id/919216. <br />Therefore, before any parcels are designated IAL by the County, it would behoove the County <br />to conduct a parcel -specific "on the ground study" such as has been done by Kauai <br />(http://plankauai.com/wp-content/uploads/IAL-FINAL-AUG-2015-combined-small.pdf) to <br />determine lands that are legitimately IAL lands. As it stands no such study has been done for <br />Hawaii Island. Only parcels that are capable of sustained high agricultural yields and that are <br />referred to by the CDP as "large agricultural lots" and "large productive agricultural <br />lands" (which would be at least 20 acres because that is the smallest confirming parcel that can <br />be created in Laupahoehoe mauka) should be considered for IAL designations. There are no <br />large or core (20 acres or more) agricultural lots along Kihalani Homestead Road which is Rural <br />the entire way to the top of the road. After the road terminates the large/core agricultural lands <br />spread out for many miles up the mountain. This should alleviate concerns that the "de facto <br />rural" parcels on Kihalani Homestead Road will clash with IAL agriculture. <br />compare "Factor 2: Minimize encroachment onto core agricultural lands. This second factor used in evaluating <br />LUPAG designations is based on Community Objective #2 which states: "Protect and restore viable <br />agricultural lands and resources." <br />2C. IAL Criteria: According to the County, the criteria for IAL includes: <br />1. parcels with better potential for sustained high agricultural yields because of soil type, <br />climate, topography, or other factors [for sustained high agricultural yields] <br />2. parcels that qualify as prime or unique (not usually applied to small or micro agriculture) <br />3. class B "good" soils (parcel 055 has a "C" rating along with most of Kihalani Homestead <br />Road) <br />4. USDA "fair" for two or more crops on an irrigated basis <br />El <br />