HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0551.002 2008-2010
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12 October 2009
For: Hawaii County Council
Subject: Positive Testimony for Council Bill 153
Council Members,
15~
An extension of the implementation of council bill 148 is critical to the survival of visitor
activities on agricultural venues and, by extension, the survival of many of those same farms
and ranches.
Background:
Agriculture is an industry. Agricultural zoning is an industrial zoning. These facts have
unfortunately been left out in the construction of the rules and regulations regarding
agricultural tourism.
Most of the complaints that were attempting to be addressed all have to do with living
conditions of neighbors and near by residents. Living on agriculturally zoned land is supposed
to reflect the need of proximity to facilitate agricultural production, not confine agricultural
operations to standards that would be normal in a residential area. Zoning law and tax code
are reflective of these standards.
Hawaii long ago started using the Agricultural zone as a catch all for areas that did not fit
into anything else. This coupled with the natural beauty ofthe islands and the fact that proper
land stewardship has positive impacts on the land has masked the industrial aspect of
agriculture. Truth is, properly run agricultural ventures are beautiful areas that are great places
to live. The unfortunate side effect is many non-agricultural influences have come into
agricultural areas and do not connect their quality of life with agricultural productivity.
As a cattle rancher I see this all the time in the cherry picking of aspects of production
and consumption. Everyone loves the wide open fields with the cattle roaming. The animals
young and old. These same people by steaks for dinner. These same people fight tooth and
nail against slaughterhouses.
Agriculture is a low margin industry that produces food and fiber while maintaining
lands and soil for future production. The low margin and production realities have long been
recognized and special rules developed to offer the best chances for success. Many of the
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Ref. To: YI
Ref. Dote ~OCT 0 7 l~~~
restrictions commonly found in residential areas are exempted in agricultural area for this
reason. Exemption include not only operations and storage volumes normally disallowed, but
different construction standards.
Unique to Hawaii is the high demand for these areas for activities other than agriculture.
It is even recognized in the finding from which the Hawaii County General Plan was written
from:
"Agricultural land values have risen beyond their value for agricultural purposes. The
high cost of agricultural land reflects non-agricultural uses and values rather than the value that
may be attributed to land if it were used as a resource for food and fiber production. Although
there are many legitimate reasons for allowing zoning and use conversion of agricultural land,
the increasing land values is one of the major problems that needs to be addressed to facilitate
the expansion of agriculture"
Agricultural tourism is the best option to provide a parallel income that will offset these
costs and allow the growth of real productive farms and ranches. Properly operated
agricultural tourism has virtually no impact on production but offsets the high costs of
operations here in Hawaii.
The regulation s as they stand today drag farms and ranches into the realm of
commercial developer. Even worse they put extremely onerous restrictions and requirements
on the operations of agricultural tourism then limit the income by tying it to a low
volume/margin operations.
Simply stated, the standards of permitting, planning and constructions must remain
constant with the operations of a farm or ranch or they will be rendered unworkable. If not the
effect will be the only growth of "agriculture" will be in the acquisition of lands by individuals
and organizations that have no financial connection to agricultural productivity.
Kahua Ranch