2017-01-19 Leeward Exh A (Bill 227 Draft 2 re Agricultural Tourism)

Home

great objectives, it has good goals and all that; so I’m not giving a hard time on it. But we are not going to get there with this, if that’s the goal. The goal is to know how many, to be able to answer Barb’s question, a pretty reasonable question — DARROW: Sure. CHURCH: — where are they, how are they operating, and get them to conform to the communities that they are in and comply to the general definitions of what ag’s operation should be. We can’t get there with this ordinance; it won’t get us there, Jeff. DARROW: Right — SHIMAOKA: Well, I’ve got, can I address Ms. Palma-Glennie on this issue? UNGER: Actually, I’d rather stay right within the realm that we are at right now. SHIMAOKA: Okay. DARROW: If I can just address Commissioner Church’s, I think my answer may have not been correct. My, what I’m trying to say is we don’t have an idea of how many unpermitted agricultural tourism operations there are. We, as far as the Planning Department goes, we’ve had two Plan Approvals for agricultural tourism on the Hilo side since 2008, and we have six, seven, one withdrew, on the west side of the island. So for a total of the entire island of agricultural tourisms, there’s eight permitted through ordinance 08-155. And there were several prior to that that were approved through Special Permit; some of the larger operations that have been operating prior to 2008. Doutor Coffee is a good example of one of those. KEALOHA: Can you elaborate on the challenge you mentioned of the proof of income? I mean, if you are commercial agricultural operation in the County of Hawai‘i, you are required to report G-49’s, General Excise Tax statement, that would in effect determine farm production, wholesale, retail production of the farm. That’s pretty generic; it’s not a complex tax question. DARROW: I, again, I’m not sure about that. Just in discussions with counties that have been doing this, they said it’s been a very difficult process for them. And they actually are trying to get away from that as far as being the means of determining this relationship financially. And again, I’m not privy to that. Our division, as far as the Planning Division, is not the ones that actually do this, as far as monitor it. But again, the, since 2008 we’ve only had a handful of people come in. Currently, I don’t think they’ve been, you know, consistently asking every year for records to come in. This bill is asking annually that these farmers come in. We can’t even get them to come in with step No. 1, let alone a yearly step. UNGER: Jeff, why don’t you go ahead and go through your presentation at this point? And then, Commissioners, let’s hold our questions till the end. I’d like to just let you go through your presentation. 15 EXHIBIT A