HomeMy WebLinkAboutRES 148 Draft 01 1992-1994M
COUNTY OF HAWAII STATE OF HAWAII
RESOLUTION N0. 148 y3
WHEREAS, the County of Hawaii is presently at a crossroad
in having to make difficult land use decisions regarding the
future use of prime agricultural lands that are being fallowed
as sugar production along the Hilo-Hamakua Coast declines; and
WHEREAS, with 488 or 1.2 million acres of the State's
tor_al agricultural land located on r.he Big Island, the County of
Hawaii relies heavily on diversified agriculture to help
stabilize an economy that is overly dependent on a fickle
tourism industry; and
WHEREAS, the Hawaii County Agricultural Development Plan
adopted by the County Council on September 16, 1992 advocates
"the protection of agricultural land from conversion to other
uses' as one of the County's three Land Use priorities; and
WHEREAS, prompt action by the County is necessary to stem
the potential loss of prime agricultural lands for
non-agricultural uses along the Hilo-Hamakua Coast and elsewhere
on the Big Island; and
WHEREAS, at a County sponsored LESA Workshop held in Hilo
on May 13, 1993, participants were shown that a County Land
Evaluation and Site Assessment (LESA) System could be developed
by utilizing variations of the proposed State LESA System and
the system proposed by the Office of State Planning; and
WHEREAS, panelists at the LESA Workshop generally agreed
that, given the situation in Hamakua and the Legislature's
inability to adopt a State LESA System, the County of Hawaii
should take the lead and develop a system of its own which would
help to identify, map and protect our most productive farm lands.
NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE COUNTY
OF HAWAII that the Mayor be requested to formally enlist the
assistance of the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human
Resources - UH Manoa, the State Department of Agriculture and
the Office of State Planning in developing a system to identify
and map important agricultural lands on the Island of Hawaii.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that t_he Planning Director and the
Planning Commission be requested to utilize the methodology,
standards, land evaluation (LE) factors and maps of the new
system in determining the merits of future requests for
reclassifying agricultural lands or issuing special use permits.
BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED that true copies of r_his
resolution be transmitted to Stephen K. Yamashiro, Mayor, County
of Hawaii; Dr. Noel P. Kefford, Dean and Director, College of
Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources; Yukio Kitagawa,
Chairperson, State Department of Agriculture; Harold Masumoto,
Director, Office of State Planning.
Dated at Hilo, Hawaii this 12th day of .7ani,arv , 1994.
COUNTY COUNCIL
County of Hawaii
Hilo, Hawaii
I hereby certify that the foregoing RESOLUTION wes by the
vote indicated to the right hereof adopted by the COUNCIL of
the County of Hawaii c JanuaF~~ . „ 9,~¢ ,
ATTEST:
c ;' \ f•
;~
1
C CLERK CHAIRMAN & PRESIDING OFFICER
ROLL CALL VOTE
AYES NOES ABS EX
Reference C-740/PG
RESOLUTION NO. 1 dR Si3
INTRODUCED BY: