yeah welcome to the year commenee economic development energy agriculture and recreation my name is don gives me and i'm the chair of the committee that the time is approximately on thirty eight good afternoon miss lono anon when i district office are you there kahn before i begin anyone who is wishing to testify please sign up at the lobby when you get to the podium please introduce yourself and or on the organization in which you represent we'll have three minutes to testify upon seeing the red light blinking that's the end of your testimony ok and so at this point i will ask if there's anyone wishing to testify in the man good afternoon chair and council members i appreciate the opportunity to speak on ag tourism i'll be speaking for myself greenlee farm and also for the hawaii farmers union so you know we're in the midst of a lot of changes and and farmers union is promoting young farmers to build a future in a career in hawaii on maui around agriculture the agra tourism has been called the bridge that really helps young people get started in this industry the last time the there was never a time like this before agriculture need  restart it was it was pretty much our companion our entire lives and now that we've entered this and we've been in this industrial area of agriculture for so long and we were seeing their house and weaknesses and to regain strength and to create awesome jobs and great ohana as agriculture offers a really big opportunity and i feel very fortunate kalani english has continued the legislature legislation he had passed at the state level and appreciate this committee hearing this today because we're kind of at the end of our timeline for when this  to come to maui and be voted in and i want to tell you one story i was at dinner last night with some friends from chicago and they they brought a friend and we had a really interesting talk and he's staying at a bed and breakfast and up country after other visits and now he's staying at the hotels and he just was pouring out praises for the difference in the experience of living above his  state being more among the country he said he felt the aloha much differently and had a completely different experience going forward with highly recommended to all of his friends and it turns out i didn't even know it until after the end of the evening but he was he's the owner of the chicago bears football team and a very non pretentious person but he could stay anywhere he could be a luxury sweet person at the wonderful hotels we have here in hawaii but he had a different experience and he'd like to thirty seconds like to have that continue in the future so i hope we pass this out and we can keep it going and get past thank you very much  actually it's me how much i see the summit and everybody knows me here before i go on with my testimony i'd like to say a brief saying about the tom morrow equestrian center i used to be the campaign manager for tom morrow that he was just a beloved character here and now i hear and i scream printed his campaign signs in my carport we went back a long way and got his horse ready to ride high spirits along the side of the highway this is pretty much his whole campaign strategy is riding high spirits so i would like to put my endorsement behind that question center now i go along with my testimony i'm here for on behalf of the my coffee association and is a member of the ag working group i support and my association supports ag tourism coffee orchards in particular are well suited to ag tourism there's generally no plowing heavy equipment or pesticides involved so it's easy to make a family friendly safe and beautiful environment for the visitor most of you know that i've been working on this bill for some time i become very familiar with the laws and ordinances in other counties and other states have also become very familiar with the legislation in our own state in two thousand and five the state of hawaii passed act one eighty three this is generally known as i or important ag lands but it's much more than that it's a mandate from the state to encourage the counties to assist farmers and ranchers to keep land in agriculture this is a quote the intent of this act is not only to set policies for important agricultural lands and to identify important agricultural lands but also to provide for the development of incentives for agricultural viability in hawaii particularly for agriculture enterprises that farm important agricultural lands and for land owners of important agricultural lands these incentives would be designed to promote the retention of important agricultural lands for buyable agricultural use over the long term the following year in two thousand and six the whole way legislature's report a preliminary report on the implementation of act  incentives for important agricultural lands lays out thirty one pages of recommendations for these incentives only three of them do not involve grants or tax credits here's the three x dieted permitting process flexibility and county and state land use commission conditions and ag tourism as an all out activity on ag land i for one would much rather see the farmer rancher finance their own viability as a producer rather than a taxpayer having to foot the bill and i hope you do too thank you if you missed it was there any fall follow up questions for the testifier see none thank you very much for your testimony and would you be available to serve  and i am totally in support of you guys giving them back the lease and that man was such a wonderful man and you know he wanted to start arena for for the people and so if you could please continue do i have a place to stay you know could could we come in stay on your farm and ranch you know just you know to be on a farm and ranch they are tired of staying in a hotel they had the hotel they have always only so big you can only come here every year and do so much of the coffee association valley floor flower growers association and a member of the ag working group i'm testifying on behalf of myself to urge you to move the ag tourism bill forward this summer i've travelled to italy and israel with my husband and sought out ag tourism destinations in order to expand have an experience of the real people in places we sought out these places and it was absolutely amazing and as bill greenleaf testified once before  council now he has the opportunity to be a brand a destination for more than it's beautiful beaches we have the potential to be thought of like napa or tuscany is a place where you can discover quaint and unique farms and have an unforgettable experience attached to my testimony i hope you all have this flyer this is from a workshop that many of us here attended back in april it was put on by the hawaii department of agriculture agriculture to encourage and support those of us with ag culture ventures to embrace ag tourism as a viable means to monetize our farms and create charming destinations in hawaii it was a great workshop packed full with interested people knowledgeable speakers and lots of great ideas there was just one problem though everything that they were telling us to do is considered illegal in maui county we do not have because we do not have the ag tourism ordinance in this ordinance is required in order to set forth the state mandate to make average tourism an allowable use on ag land to my knowledge we are the only state in the country and may be the only country in the whole world missing out on this opportunity to monetize and support agriculture create jobs provide special and educational experiences for locals and tourists alike and to make the farmlands more than a drive past experience act twenty one eighty three also known as i was generated in reaction to sugar cane and pineapple plantations shutting down across the state with this transitional point in time with the recent news from h cns it's the perfect moment in history to set forth a new agricultural vision for maui when you make it possible for people to be creative in what they offer on their farms and allow them to make money now his charm factor will go way up so will the reputation and its economy now he will become the leading edge of an industry trend that simply makes sense thank you so much for your support thank you mr reid cerny other further questions clarifications s please come to the podium and just introduce yourself hi i'm sharon freydis ok and go ahead and state what item you're testifying we are here for our forty eight ok go ahead with your testimony ok this is about the question arena thank you we have i have paula lewis here and patty mcneil they're also on our board of directors and we have worked extremely hard to keep the pressure on lifestyle going and we would really like to have support for a longer term lease with a longer term lease more time to plan and prepare and do a lot of father things that we have on our agenda we're currently trying to work on the trail course that people can come and practice with their horses for horse shows and also it's give them something else to do with their reno one more different use instead of just in the arena and then we also need san because of when the rain just you throughout the years since ninety ninety eight when we started that is has become depleted so we just ask for your kind consideration and i have one thing about that a bill with egg tourism i just came back from thirty today cruise in south america and that was one way that we chose our destination for tourists if it was an egg type of area we were on that tour thank you very much much m practices are really it's not really suitable for that is what i'm hearing in the in the community and so will this extra sand help help that you know the extra sand will definitely make a difference but it would be nice to really have a lot more sand but maybe if we could get on like maybe a schedule of like every year keep putting matey and till we get to that level you know i'd like to team that ok that years you're saying everyone for the hard work that's gone into getting to where we are today and encourage you to amend their ordinance and vote in favor of this i own a small farm of about eighteen acres in our country and i have a payroll about fifteen employees in exclusively make my living from ag tourism activities here on maui i would however like to add a few comments about this change not being the final chapter in bringing maui county into the twenty first century in promoting sustainable agriculture please consider that the approach so far has been to narrowly define agriculture in maui county to not include ag tourism thereby effectively effectively making ag tourism illegal this change hopefully will finally make ag tourism allowed as a good first step and encourage that grayling i would like to suggest however that the next step be to update the definition of agriculture to include them as our right under such a definition and a good place to start would be the definition that the federal government the united states uses for agriculture and more specifically sustainable agriculture and included more information in my hand about what that is how it's defined county updated the definition of what's included in agriculture this eggs tourism statute might be unnecessary it would also make agra tourism a principle as opposed to accessory land most other states in the country follow the approach of making this activity legal as part of thirty second promoting agriculture and i think there's a lot more that maui county can do to also promote agriculture specifically in making it legal and allowed and this is a good first step but i would encourage you to take further steps to encourage actor as i'm here in maui county thank you for your time seasonal crop of proteas they have their seasons they come and go and there are the low spots in the season which if these changes are made possible we could sustain ourselves and maintain our farm better throughout the year without the drastic wells that sometimes occur as well the bill would help maintain or help benefit other farmers who may be in the same position as us throughout the year it would be a great way to support local and keep maui farming and strong of and that's going to cost big bucks to do that i've been around i've been to a lot of readers i mean he's calls west go wherever on a big island you have to county facilities on the big island hawaii that the county runs it and they have no problems and itself is a community thing so before like i noticed this news group of ladies i know you are not doing no wrong i know it's all about horses and but it's a community seeing it's a it's taxpayers money there's going to sting and i'm a taxpayer and our roper and i want to be able to use this space but at the same time i don't want to be i don't know the rules i don't know who's on the like i said it's not against tom law it's about doing it right this is a come this is the taxpayers money that you put into displays it's not yours is not your personal use it's about everybody i have a friend who lives right and saw the set up then and it's been it's beautiful set up with with the shoots and the alleys and the gates and whatever you need for it you know the right rodeo style and the type of writing you do and you state there's concerns i guess safety couch has a question for you thank you mr george so i just want to get a straight year old k with the arena being there you just need to see it get a group together to find out what would be the best way out what we're going to do here is not just a little little group find thank you and on hunt office is there anyone wishing to testify the donation for the materials to install the back boards at the column of park tennis courts this is the committee's in receipt of county communication fifteen dash three o two from the  three point five six of maui county code the purpose of the proposed resolution is to accept the donation of materials and supplies valued at three thousand to the department of parks and recreation from the fierce  foundation to install three of the black boards at the tennis courts that column a park and keep the committee may consider whether to adopt the proposal of the of the resolution or with or without revisions and may also consider filing of the county communication fifteen three o two and related actions today we have our director of our parks and recreation department and if you're going to hel park itself he had all of these providing that labor and materials chair i can clarify that more but from my understanding yes that will be it will be putting everything up on that part of it yes but he will be donated ok mr jack guess maybe we can make this isn't as an item potentially probably for a committee but you know to have to have to have the guy wait from august fifteenth for it to get through our calendars to to donate something half way decent value i was wondering if there is some way we can have a item to go to to change that dollar amount somehow me ask the director and when was the request submitted to the department chair for what we hear it back in august i can i was yours is there a reason why it took so long for it to come could get back to you on that but just basically in the process there was some communication as well with the donor who does it live for full time she's back and forth to go to the mainland so just the communication and getting everything back and forth on that person that is representing the family is flying in from thailand and probably is that correct is that serious her daughter was she's back in the mainland and the daughter was on vacation in thailand who were supposed to be there this morning but i guess she missed her flight ok so where we are so very appreciative of the family to donate the materials at this point but not to delay the matter any further what what's the what's the status of the courts right now just in general regarding just the strings effort itself and everything in service i mean it's it's there it's cable i mean of course every we can always do upgrades and we are we have that on a maintenance schedule for the most part putting that up it's definitely playable and ready to go once we can get those boards up but to do with the court itself it's definitely there so were there boards before and this is their real need for these back boards yet there's definitely i mean especially being donated to us you know it does help us as a county but operation costs on there are current boards there and there also were boards before that we replaced so again the more the merrier and again with somebody doing the donation it's always a plus for the county ok very good is there any further questions from the members children ok the chair will entertain a motion to recommend adoption of the proposed resolution entire authorizing the acceptance of the donation of materials and supplies to and saw three black back boards to the department of parks priest pursuant to chapter three point five six in the maui county code and the filing of the county communications thirteen cash three zero two chair so and that includes also filing yes and filing of his filing of county communication fifteen dash three zero two motion by miss cochran seconded by mr couch and a further discussion of those in favor say  agenda this is p c forty eight the grant of lease of the count county recreational space to tom morrow its equestrian arena haikui are forty eight committees in receipt of county communication sixteen dash six from the director of parks and reparation transmitting a proposed resolution entitled authorizing a grant of lease for the county recreational space to tamora equestrian arena the purpose of the proposed resolution is to authorize the nonprofit to continue to lease a portion of the fourth marine division memorial park in haiku the committee may consider whether to recommend adoption of the proposed resolution with of with or without religion's and the community may also consider filing of the county communication sixteen six and other related  passed away i was tom's fiance i found the property to build this arena originally i was at a community advisories committee meeting and high cool and they're trying to get land  across the street from i could community center and my comment was you guys great having a very difficult process to take land that is productive egg for parks and i suggest looking at the fort marine park which is that pineapple feel have been terminated and that's the property that we were able to acquire to enlarge the park and for  back in the early ninety's i was on his citizens and parks advisory committee it took us years to get approval to continue this process once we had the process and the was determined for the arena i did not just allow just certain people to run this and i am a roper board has roped that my arena at the senior rodeos for many years back then i had more people use in my private arena then was using clubs and we are not a club and on the fans at the time our question center is my personal phone number and the personal phone number of sue gill for anybody who wants information about using that arena and as many years as i have drive down to mccann a path i have never seen your arena either is hard to find and i invited every single club president just to frame put i told them i said you folks are invited here as board of directors you folks will be the board of directors to produce this arena and that's how it began i grew up in this county where if you weren't friends with somebody you could write in an arena this is for everybody's discipline and yes i can agree with pat about the footing in that arena but that is something that can be rectified and another thing that i that it better arena need fixing is the chute that runs the alley way that feeds the roping box that was one day i couldn't be there in the process of building that arena acts as a school teacher and when i came they had the thing too wide you want to move cattle you have to squeeze a he cannot move cattle in a wide alley we need a tight alley and that is something that we can also be prepared but as far as number of events when we had the grand opening not one horse fell down and i was in the drill team and were doing some fast ride in and my horse  fall and i have had two womens rodeos and kids rodeos there back in the early two thousand so there was more than one rodeo there and there was numerous horse shows that transpired there this is not just for one discipline if it was for one discipline why the did i design a rope box in there and it is there why did i put a strip chute to take off the ropes from the cattle that you work why did i purchased on their fans and we have a website and when this facility first began the numerous publications we publicize the grand opening in at our blessing but you had you said questions for department either department or i see on this either one it would probably go together but and so is it true that your folks lease has been expired for two years yes and what and how how did that come to be exactly that it did you just not know or know we knew it we've been working on it has been writing and speaking back and forth with and i got the memo so we've been working on it it's not like we forgot about it we have been actively working on the lease for two years and i guess you haven't been getting responses from department is that why it's been so our office with our ground department has been trying to go back and forth but because of the time lapse of her being on island and not throughout the years it was getting pushed and pushed back so as we finally got together recently the department has put it together and that's where we are today so it wasn't a department that was holding the process of the contract or of the crash it's it was kind of a back and forth being and as we all know the grandslam happened immediately so with the with the communication between the group and the department and on having people there on a constant basis is where we are today what about the corporation council do you have any information to share now i worked on this most recently so it could come up to coun thank you i can only state your name and your position in the organization yes i'm a user of the arena and i'm on the board of directors ok and i'm the secretary of the board thank you very much  duration of the time that it's been taking to yes bring this lease forward i have not been involved in that process i'm relatively new to the board however i do have a copy of the lease and i in looking at it notice that the on the draft it while it doesn't have a date on it of course it does provide twenty fourteen as part of as part of the first draft so it tell that tells me that this is been in the in the works for a couple of years this was drafted in two thousand and fourteen and i guess there was an expectation at that time that it would be able to move along but you know things happen and it it just has been a slow process and i think as a director has pointed out we've been on a month to month in the interim so that's the only comment that i wanted to make regarding the lease unless there are any other to finally get to this stage which is two years so they have been waiting quite some time for this misread this ok to gather one other point that i'd like to point out in the process of getting this arena built i was a school teacher at baldwin high school you know boulder high school we do not ever own fields reuse the county facilities the gym the softball fields tennis courts dollars a year for the same thing that we are doing now services needed to keep it working ok it seems to be all right with that figure yes ok i guess the question i have to cheer to them is if we were to approve this extension in their arenas all over this county and all over a state to be perfectly honest and so if we were to approve this would you look at a better fiscal plan and maybe raising the fear a little to make sure that someone to meet miss issues some of the pictures are seemed you know it's going to run down in these operating right i mean i'm not i mean i was up there about two months ago and it was pretty pretty funky you know and i mean it is still in good shape but it needs some upgrades right but the only complex and he's the one that before we were together who helped me build that arena great you know hands on bill and we're talking about him trying to get him to get down there to bring that school shoot that feeds the rope box in information from the outside is that they don't really want to pay anything to use this arena they want it for free but in order to keep it the way you say it was round on when you got there was the yard mo yes ok the panels in the arena are not rusty all the plywood around their rena to distract the cattle that's all still freshly painted green have everybody here everybody comes back to the beach what would it cost to have that done we have any idea just how rough number for no this is not a county sponsored arena we're not we just put it together in honor of tom and today they're trying to be self sufficient so there isn't a case cost associated with just been upgrading and or maintaining the arena itself when it's a beautiful facility like actions of the few months ago you know on my own i don't i don't call for people i know how to get in you know i know how they gave us and so you know i just want to see it continue to increases sure that pat and others can feel they can use it but there's going to be a cost what is twenty five dollars a person i don't know you know whatever they said but just enough to recover and that is a safer city with the i guess that's the other key it's safe because even though they carry insurance  the way i look at it is it looks as though you may he may for the first time ever may need to come to the budget and ask the council for some monies to be appropriated to where we as a council are very open for organizations that have continued to benefit the community and you've done so for twenty plus years and this is a park facility that  is you've been you know as as you said been guardians for for quite some time and i had the opportunity to do a site visit with ms cochran and it looked very well kept i don't know the  of a certain disciplines in the rodeo and so there may be issues with that but i think this all resolved if we all work together we invite the ropers to have a meeting and we address issues that mr borg had brought up because you know they are a discipline of our community too and i do want to commend you i was quite actually i was impressed with the area and i think it's originally you folks asked for the front portion which would have been more visible to the public by but unfortunately at that time not for me but after a time the call for a park was for soccer and all these other uses which is currently that occurred through the years but in the end i hear you feel that we all are very supportive of this arena and of course the legacy and the and what it you know memorialize mr morrow and his efforts while he was here with us and so i am  very much for your brain assisting in helping you know to bring this place up to par maybe as mr gore said it's very rainy of there and trying to drive in your truck to be your retreat your horse in trailers get stuck in the mud whatever it may be a little more gravel i saw the face of the footing there were awful grass and it's kind of it you know kind of compact it but i can see too you know it's a coup and happens and then my head in the war you know digging out with the tires and everything going it can make for not so good you know driving but that can be rectified too you know like you said i see you're trying to venture out and do little more trails on the side there to utilize the space you have and the you're going to be presenting a budget item on that so all those kind of stuff you know are present and you know we all can discuss and ask the questions and see if it's fit for you know the use of our taxpayer dollars to  help create more use you know and for horsey horse community so you know that's i'm open to that and yeah i knew you stated all the things in the issues you saw so i want to thank you for being open and honest about that about the alleys middle and then i go down the side along the fence and just kind of stupid you know we put it in the middle then out back played it back and i do that at no charge because i love the sport of rodeo and i love having arenas and i really want to perpetuate this to anybody who wants to ride were very good so looking forward to more details on how to improve the area and this and i can from there yes and i thank you folks for the invitation to put in how i'd like to hit another steer again but thank you very much mr freed us and also the numbers just in conclusion yeah i think that this is something that the community needs to collaborate on forth now i think it's a good thing it will serve as a collaboration or at least a vehicle to get to get their arena back in the attention of the community and it's good timing  followed by mr mr couch thank you very much because i'm not a voting member of this committee i've tried to be required here but i have to say something it appears we're having a gathering of the clan here today because ms freighters happens to be my second because in her father's my mother's nephew it's that close my mother was freydis yes and so i'm very familiar with her very familiar with her family and their work and their interest in a country and in this kind of discipline this kind of sport and it's part of a country is what is it it's what a country is all about and what i'm seeing here today and hearing about is this dedication and devotion to this cause and to this sport and what she and her of her people that work with or believe in you know they give a lot of time and they give a lot of energy and they give a lot of money to and thank you for their dedication and i want you to know that while i can vote in committee i can vote when it gets out of committee to the floor and i'm very strongly in support of this i think it's very important we need to preserve the country and the spirit and the support of a country and this is definitely something that i want to see that come to light so again thank you so much and good luck and i'm not worried about the two years i have been here for almost ten and everything we talk about has been here for years and years and years centers and a couple other things that for some reason some of the members wanted to bump the lease up two hundred dollars a year i'm not in favor of doing not but i want members to take a look at we're doing things and we've always been doing things for one dollar a year so when those come back up again the number to bring those back down to this one dollar a year if that's so i mean that's the way it's been done to put that burden on non profit is there's a is there a motion no no i want to leave it one dollar just so the next next time there's at least the comes up to a nonprofit especially you centers i had some handouts dispersed to us just to give you folks a little more information and i had received this from sue and i believe here you know i'm an e mail also from rethinking us for the visit and so on but she gave us a little further information about your folks about and this their board of directors and so on so i just one thought it would be helpful for all of us to learn a little bit more about who the group is what you know what they do and what they stand for and a thank you e mail which i forwarded also to you folks and gives a little background on tom himself and what had occurred and the reason for setting up this memorial to him and things like that so i just all before i start with that i'm just going to take a quick introduction i think we have in our galleries some important political officials from koran and if you could please stand in a big knowledge going on members p c forty eight no sorry apologize the p c forty one yeah that is the island plan chapter for economic development relating to tourism in receipt of the following number one county communication fifteen dash one fifty three from council member john couch on the matter of the maui island plan chapter for economic development relating to tourism the correspondence dated january nineteenth sixteen from the department of corporation counsel transmitting a proposed resolution entitled referring to referring to the ninety planning commissions a proposed bill to regulate agricultural tourism activities in agricultural to stick with a proposed bill entitled the bill for an ordinance amending title nineteen of the maui county code to regulate agricultural tourism activities in the agricultural district district attached as an exhibit the purpose of the post resolution is to refer to the maori alumni and molokai planning commission a bill that would regulate agricultural tourism activities in agricultural districts implementing section two or five cash to dia lev and two zero five dash two d twelve the whole y revised statutes the community may consider whether to recommend adoption of the proposed resolutions with or without revisions as well as the committee may consider filing for the county communication fifteen dash won by three and other related actions so today i believe it's in your blinders members were only going to be  the representative from the planning department michele mclean who is here with us and this bill has been been work has been in the process of of sorry own plan and a committee report the committee reports talk it will be wanting to the committee wanted to say your committee expressed interest in further evaluation of public expenditures for the visitor entered industry that's what my letter was about however in the letter i just talked about a chapter for economic development and on that same page page four dash thirteen talks about  goal objective policies and actions a policy four point two point one easy diversify the tourism industry by supporting appropriate nice activities such as you go tourism cultural tourism volunteerism voluntourism communication fifteen dash one fifty three but the other communication privacy fifteen dash one fifty three is related to this subject matter for yes thank you thank you again members this bill has been in work for the last two years in order to provide the consistency between the county's land use laws and the state's land use laws for the purpose of augmenting the agricultural industry and in maui county the bill would allow the agriculture tourism activities as an accessory uses within the agriculture district as provided by in section two zero five dash two of the why revised statutes in two thousand and six there was a mandate from the why the legislature to the counties to pass agricultural tourism ordinances regulating and encouraging those businesses as a way to maintain farms and ranches by offering a related income stream in section two zero five dash two d leavitt of the that it was added to allow agricultural tourism conducted on a working farm for the enjoyment education or or involvement of visitors as an accessory use the two d twelve the why or by statutes that applies only to maui county and allows overnight accommodations of twenty one days or less for any one stay within the county provided the county has adopted ordinances regulating agriculture tourism activities pursuant to section two hundred five dash zero five and those activities co exist with a bonafide i recall zero activity which means an active farming operation so this is this  ordinance in as a result of having to comply with that section maui county must enact regulations to allow this type for agriculture tourism to promote agricultural development in the county the ag working group has worked on this bill as you've heard in the testimony it was referred by the planning committee and at this time we are wishing or the  working group as well as i myself as the chair is hoping that we would pass this through for a to the planning commissions for their recommendations and fine tuning of the bill and then have it be sent back to us for further fadi i would ask for comments from this city smith for the opening comments that you may have thank you chair well as you said there we've worked on this for quite some time i think that it's really important to point out that a lot of the reason that this hasn't been pursued in the past as i fear the abuse and  you know as a working farmer and having a lot of friends who are working ranchers we really get tired of kind of being thrown under the bus because of the fear of views we do that educated agad specters that are qualified well eliminate a lot of these problems because we currently don't have any qualified agone spector's it's really easy to for lack of a better phrase pull the wool over the eyes of the specters that we have now and this is creating such a problem because you can practice all of these things now with a special use permit which is very expensive and so the people that are able to afford a special use permit are already wealthy or well off and then the actual farmers and ranchers that really should have these opportunities can't do it and so this is been the reason that i got involved in this from the very beginning as because my neighbor gave hogan and i went through the special use permit process really just to see how bad it was and you know a lot of people said it's not that bad because it's much better than it used to be you know but that still makes it expensive and hard to go through and if you don't have a lot of resources or a lawyer in the family or someone who's a consultant you know that can do all of the plans and paperwork is just daunting and almost impossible for a lot of our local families to be able to do this by making an allowable accessory use they won't need to go through this process and so we and the farming community the actual farming community in ranchi community support ag tourism as a part of a of a true working farm group to talk about having heard from the farmer group saying that they needed some way to supplement their income for to actually be able to do their farming one of our the planning committee's biggest concerns was the potential abuse so i just wanted to ask you were there miss meth what kind of things have you put in there to really curtail the potential for abuse of this well i think it does say in the in the current version that it has to be a working farm or ranch and of course that's subjective but i i really feel and i don't know where we are with that bill for the ag and specter bill but that's kind of crucial you know any of the people that came to testify today or myself could go out and see in a minute if something was a natural farm or not it wouldn't really be a big mystery but apparently that this is a difficult situation for some people so i i i think that just stating in the language of the ordinance that it needs to be a legitimate working farm or ranch should be enough if the if the county has the personnel that are qualified that and i mean you could put a monetary amount on that but my problem with that is as a coffee farmer i have a high amount of income that i make but my money so i hate to put it a monetary component on it because that's just making it easier for the inspector but it doesn't make the job of the farmer a rancher any easier so i'm not sure that there's a foolproof way to do this except to have a qualified person in the county doing the inspection and our plan chair has been to have an inspector that could be utilized by all departments and so that all departments need this qualified inspector his it isn't just planning and it's not just water there and you know it's not just the finance department it's it's all the departments and they don't each need to have a qualified inspector there just needs to be one that everyone could use it does say in the ordinary members that there needs to be a farm plan approved by the planning department and i believe the it has been active farm as well that's that's the only requirement aside also from proof of insurance as well mr couch thank you and i just those are those are the big things i'm sure that's going to happen at the planning complete commission level as well those kind of questions and this is just to get it down to the planning commission and having read through a lot of this it appears that it's pretty solid so i'm i'm fine i'm saying it's down to the planning commission thank you spicer thank you very much jerry and if i could vote i would be in support of this and you know this is been hanging around from when i was planning to or when i first came to the council when i was working we'd learn a fundie living in a farm and we were trying to really promote egg tourism and i want to thank you and the egg whipping group for pushing and pushing and pushing and finally having this bill here i think it's important and if ever there was a reason for us to move this it's what is happening in our community with a we have got to be very creative and figure out how ever we can support egg in this community because they're struggling and if they can do a farm as well as earn an extra income and make it all work then i am in full support i think we've got to do this thank you  thank you thank you for being here you know i guess i do recognize that good tourism is of value as far as you know educating the visitor as are and i've often heard the chatter that sustainable farming is the way to full and i know i also recognize the statutes allow overnight stays are part b and b and  is actually your farm your farm oral and i'm sure this would be dealt with in the planning and then when it comes back to us because then i start to want to address the  application of the real property tax to do you see that as far as the real property tax changes remaining would give you if the the the the  farm area would have a c r as or as well as b and b s well i'm glad you asked that because in my case i have large parcels now i know that some people have gotten that's yours and b and b s that  are on small ag parcels and they're even have bakers bagged parcels here and now i can't even though they don't allow those now there are some in existence you know i feel that you know i have a five hundred square foot cottage on my large farm parcel i really don't like the idea of changing minds owning you know because it's only a tiny little section you know that my my cottage is on and i do have short term rental homes on my farm  but it does not impact my farm and it but i i do feel that there has to be some kind of component in the in the finance department to tax them but i don't like the idea of changing the whole parcells tax structure because that defeats the whole purpose of trying to help support keeping a farm in a viable farming structures so you know i think there has to be an answer but i don't like the idea of changing the zoning they have another question and follow up to that so and we are in the work issues that may come up what we're trying to get in compliance with what the state has been trying to push forward also so this is not just us it's a statewide movement was mentioned earlier by one of my colleagues a will have ceased thousand acres available for and i don't think there's many people that can get out there and make sustainable work i know the next issue is the hampton industrial hemp and all that that maybe one of the answers from a very many answers but any crop that you grew up two days going to take a while to harvest so what happens in the interim unless you have big money backing you up but what a world we could have if that tourism was a part of it until like machines she needed would make it viable and how many of us have two and three jobs nobody ever questions why we have two or three jobs no one ever questions why you need to make money why you need to survive so i think the day of worrying about those who will cheat there will always be guys who want to and that's why i agreed to see me let's get some who knows what a farm is can smell it feed it taste it don't have to be told what to farm use and that's very important yes there and once we get that the rest will become easy dedication all these other issues become relevant once you get that as aspect completed and i think you guys have worked hard been a couple had a couple of your meetings that this group is a wonderful group they work very diligently in trying to make farming ranching and any form of agriculture commercial agriculture especially sustainable for years to come and it's not hard it's not easy to be a farmer so i can't support this moon being moved on i want to belabor the point i think it's time this moves on and let's get it for quite some time and then vetted through the working group and then back to my office and then council services and we had i know that greg and chione also works with  office had two meetings with mr spence as well as mr alan letter and got their input as well after there after it went to corporation council for some more input although they  cooperation council for their form in the galaxy at this point i'd like to ask the way in between that time there was a instructions from our corporation council or deputy to send the bill for review to our risk management department because of the liability issues on the insurance portion and they recommended the language that's in section eleven i do have one question on that section if we could have the representative come down you know if you could also identify yourself from the department will the planning department have an opportunity to give comments  you thank you chair yes on the section key please identify yourself for the record i'm media toto i'm the risk management officer for the county ok thank you for being here today i know that we had sent this off to your department for review and comment you did recommend this language here a number of live and my question is why why do we why do they need insurance on the vehicle on a vehicle if it's if it's actress type activity is it just for just how doing an additional insurance on coverage for for a vehicle they quit when you when they a person wants to avail of this ordinance they have to register with the department and upon registering they have to show proof of why ability insurance i understand that on the on the property itself but why the additional vehicle insurance you like the lady is just a standard a standard coverage for all types of businesses if you own a business where you have vehicles that you're using to as part of your operation then you would be required in any instance to to have coverage for that vehicle life billet on would be a line of lightly coverage so that's something that in there i understand that maybe not all stay on the land even the old bus up truck that stays on the land it's ok what invariably happens is i have a pickup truck down at the store and i'm in the truck and i'm in the field i'm going to go to the store right now once you enter public highway you have to have no fault and that's what happens a lot because i do insurance for some of these farmers and diggers don't think about it so that's the real dangerous portion of this also if you keep the truck or vehicle legal you're required to have insurance so i gained all of this is just my area of of work all the time so that's why when i saw it i wasn't really opposed to it because i believe no matter what vehicle unless it's a real farm vehicle like a tractor or something and even truck this can be dangerous because they have trailers that they hooked up to take people roam i saw that happen up at the  tract and they had people jumping behind the trailer yikes if something happens and that's all i have to say about that that's very good for that type of exploration thank you very much i know we will have our our comments yesterday afternoon so we have not had a chance to review it we did work with your staff and council services staff last year i think it was round about in october but i i can't say without having had to touch having had the time to look at it whether the bill that's in front of you today you know how many changes have been made since that time and so there you know just when i was sitting in the gallery before this item came up i was going through it and making notes and there are there are a number of questions policy questions that we would like the chance to discuss with the committee in committee before it sent to the planning commission so that the planning commission can review and comment on something that's close to a final version of the bill the planning commission's review and make recommendations to land use ordinance is there they shouldn't really be asked to come up with a number of out of policy decisions or to answer answer what seemed to be unclear policy issues that are in this draft we would like a chance to discuss that with the committee and make modifications to the bill before it is sent to the planning commission and just for example in the new definition of ag tourism activity more than half of those uses are already allowed as either permitted or access reuses in the ag district already so there just needs to be cleaned up in some way those two things need to reconcile because if you're doing let's say horseback riding under the current access or use of open land recreation does that mean you're doing an egg tourism activity and you need to register but it's allowed under open land recreation already so if you're doing an activity that's described in two different areas one has a registration requirement and one doesn't it's just confusing how you how we would treat these things  other uses that are listed in there are permitted out right vineyards are allowed out right you pick it farms and gardens would be allowed out right so now that's just on the the first page of the bill  so we would like the chance to work with you somewhere i don't think it would take more than one committee meeting to to work through it and we can work with your staff ahead of time of on this  and please let me say we're very supportive of the concept there that the gist of this is very very good the idea of any inspectors is fantastic you know there's you know overall there's a lot of compost bill which basically you know we had some issues to it people agreed basically said send it on over to the planning commission i think it's the bill is in substance all the there i believe that  this would be the same type of category if members would object i'm going to go ahead and call for a vote for sending it to the commission and you can always vote proposed in the resolution referring to the referring this matter to love and i am molokai planning commissions they propose a bill to regulate agriculture tourism activities to the agriculture district with a proposed bill entitled t specific concerns or questions or challenges with this as it's presented right now that you would then bring it up to the planning commissions during the deliberations by their those bodies i'm sorry to be off but i ask you the question i see somebody fall down at the same time and when you know i just missed it you know what i'm asking is the planning department is if there's they're very concerned about what's in here right now if i and you support it so i don't think it's a major concern but you see a certain area or certain paragraph or certain that bothers you or you know some stuff that is that maybe that you want to have changed you at the point of meeting with the various bank commissions bring that at that point bring it up you could bring it up at that point right yes we could along with their concerns along with their concerns  the problem is that i mean this is this is a pretty significant bill and you know we might not have major changes that we want to see i don't know yet the commissions in the past have looked at bills and not with this committee not even you know not with agger but in the past we've taken bills to them where they've just said that you know we don't support it because we've raised questions and so you don't get good feedback from them because they have just said no the problems with this we can't support it another thing i did want to bring up is that what state what the state law relating to ag tourism requires is that it relates to a bona fide agricultural activity we would want to also confirm with a corporation council who hasn't signed off on the bill whether this ordinance which is more permissive than state law how how that would reconcile with the state law requirement for ag tourism because what they define as a bonafide ag activity and a commercial farming operation seems to be more restrictive than what's defined here as an active ag operation so that could be a very important change to the bill if the bill goes to commissions as it is now comes back to you changes need to be made based on that it could very well require it going back to commissions again as being a substantive change so i'm not you know i'm i'm not trying to throw a wrench into this i'm not trying to be difficult or slow things down i'm i'm just saying that i think we could work through it quickly and have a better more refined bill go to commissions and i think that would be a better way to approach it or excuse me i should say that's that's what the department would request  to have consideration for that what the department is requesting and all fairness because at the end it's the department that we're going to put the pressure on to make sure if it's bonafide if you planning commission or or what have you in their respective plan planning commissions so more soul i think her request is is of value because of their their role with the planning commission so that's just my opinion thank you thank you very much any other comments from the was it be quick meeting with you folks again we could we will have ourselves ready at the next regular meeting if you want to post this at your next regular meeting and vetting out the policies versus allowing the commission to give their input and then coming back to this committee base of the input of the commissions and then we're working out the  policies it's really up to this committee if you wanted to without it i would prefer the first first part of it where you re send it to the commission and get their input it's not written in stone and it they're giving us the they they do have that third eye where they can kind of look at the language and see whether in fact there are this is a policy issue that needs to be decided the corporation council doesn't sign off on the horse before the car or the cart before the horse it doesn't really to me it doesn't really matter because we're going to be vetting it whether it goes to the commission first or it comes afterwards we're still going to look at it  pass anything out of this committee and tell we are relieved that it through so do you guys want to continue this and vet it line by line and then send it off to the commission where it's going to get some more and change some more and then come back and repeat that means vetting it twice in this committee and then we've got an issue with doing with the two to age who i revised statutes section in this  coming legislative session where there could be amendments and i know that connie english is also recommending that we get moving on this so that he has a leg to stand on withstand any major amendments at the latch so strategically i would suggest that we i would recommend we send it off to the commission so that mr english has an opportunity to say that it's pending mr cox thank you mr chair and you know since i deal with the planning committee in the planning department quite a bit i'm i'm one that i try to do go along with what the planning department says but your point about giving center to english some some ammunition i'd be willing in this the bill was worked on extensively in december and january by staff and it was also sent before the new year with a request to counsel to approve the resolution they don't  normally or review the bill but in this case we were grateful to receive some input from corporate counsel including the suggestion that we seek input from risk management additionally the ag working group has continued to make comments suggest revisions to the bill in its many forms from october to now and until recently january nineteenth but today's us reduced to twenty you know i mean here's a few days to care for the poor department time to vet through and at least be prepared for today i feel for the department right now actually i don't understand what you're trying to say but you know i meet the motion but you know i personally would rather i don't i can't speak against it but my point just saying that this is something that has been worked through for so long and everyone knows i'm anti active one bit but i think that this the partment deserves the right to vet it through and send it down to you know and i want to refer to high commission most definitely but i see where it can be hard on their behalf i know it's not a good subject for them to make changes and all that i guess that's the rub it's going to have to go he was at this point is harm seen it but you know it would have been nice to have at least give them department sooner my staff unfortunately is staffing the special committee on the of governance and we've this my staff has been in their ears with doing research for the special governance that there's a lot of things that are dropping in my committee based off of the governance committee and you won't believe how many research assignments they're given and so i do have to defend my staff for that i do understand that things have been dropping even the agenda items that are on there there are some mistakes that have never been there before but some members staff and believe me my staff takes the print of it because we have the researchers on it so i apologize for the for for not having it presented to the planning department sooner but i'm boxed in at this point because we we've heard from mr english that and a lot of the members of the working group that they've been in communication with mr english that he needs a leg to stand on so strategically i have no  but to say ok let's try to push this through to the commission we'll get it back at least the planning department will have an opportunity to review it during commission and that's the best that i can do you know i if i push it  and i really recognize the overwhelming positions that they're they're experiencing now my question is what sort of timeframe does the planning commission say we passe what what requires them to put this on the agenda sort of timeframe i think that i think they have one hundred in one hundred thirty days one hundred twenty days hundred twenty days to review it just feel for the department and i feel that at the very end they will be you know they'll be the ice for this you know and i understand what what is planning and in collaboration with the committee and then to the planning commission and then back back to us without having to go planning commission any department back to us there's been other bills that basically know if you want to continue this and then spend an entire needing vetting it we can do that but will have to clear my agenda to spend the entire day doing it and then when we pass it to a commission they're going to i understand my colleagues concerns and i understand you know department i truly understand where you where you're where you're standing i think first start with misty english what we send down now if if we forward it to our  lanning commissions that's what he's going to be using first and foremost understand this is what kalani will use right now it doesn't have to go to the planning commission come back and we approve it and then because the n word like next year you're right so this is what kalani is counting on at this point to help him because he can say we as basically supported this now it's gone to the planning commission to vent it out and all that so i hope you understand mclean that's the other time element in here and the session if you don't get something to them by the end of the actually end of this month early next day gets bigger or they start running in in their direction they've got to get bills they've got to get things out there and now in fact by the end of this week most of the bills would have been put out by the various committees and then after that it's all up to the president or the speaker to denial out any more bills or to is kind of imperative for us to get it out because kalani needs it to help us get it done in the state level but more importantly i think this still gives the planning commission an opportunity to look at it to vent it because even if we make changes now we seem to be changing come back we still so really what you see is we work on it once we send it then senator we work on it twice no matter what happens and you know and that's happened in many of the planning commission state different approaches than what we recommend ok so i guess you know and again recently and i'm sorry about the way that things work out at times we all fall in deedes trash deadlines are not met unfortunately times we have received tons of information right at the very end and have to sift through it in a meeting to try to make a decision so please forgive us we're not trying to you know make you feel bad i understand how you feel but i think this is very imperative off from from a state point of view and really to get the process moving within the planning it's really the clock is running too quickly in this this particular case both on the state level and here locally so i think we need to push this along and then you as a department can interject as you're going to and maybe some of the concerns here may be the same concerns the planning commissions will have also who knows sole i know that would be where i would support you in this case at this time not to circumvent the department please i've always waited and waited and waited and sometimes you guys had many many good reasons why you couldn't get things done for you know staffing and all that you should do so please forgive me when i will try to support the cheers recommendation at this time as in any further discussion committee is a receipt of the following county communication fourteen dash two one three from council member don couch on the matter of industrial hemp as defined as in act fifty six twenty fourteen  correspondent stated january twentieth two thousand and sixteen from committee chaired on from me transmitted a proposed resolution entitled urging support of the senate bill to establish a pilot program to allow the c tion of industrial have and distribution of its seeds in hawaii the purpose of the proposed resolution is to urge the state legislature to legislature to support a proposed bill establishing a pilot program to allow the call cultivation of industrial have and distribution of its its seeds in hawaii through limited activities by the board of agriculture for agriculture or academic research the industrial  important crop that was recognized in two thousand and fourteen by president barack obama when he signed the farm bill of two thousand and fourteen authorizing the institutions of higher education to state department  or to grow industrial hemp for research or agricultural plot pilot programs in two thousand and fourteen the state legislature enacted act fifty six which authorized a two year initial study on h remediation and biofuel crop research on a walk by the college of tropical cultural and human resources at the at the university of hawaii the research project is a feasibility study on the growth and use of industrial hemp in hawaii positive results were reported by the university in a report in two thousand and sixteen legislature a copy of which has been handed out to you the study found that sub sub tropical fiber have g quickly in hawaii with the potential of three crops per you per year the study concludes the yield the yield of about thirty tons per year of stocks per acres is promising because there is a need for a building material in hawaii that is not imported the large amount of leafy material from the fiber have offers the potential for home grown forage crop to feed to to feel to feed local cattle and then have  also a production which as a production can be lucrative to farming activities there is a significant potential for successful him agricultural industry in hawaii based on the point in the findings of the industrial hemp research project members staff has also passed out a revised revision of their proposed resolution which i asked to be asked for it to be prepared in order to provide a county support for any bill that establishes a pilot program allowing the cultivation of the industrial hemp and district you know if it's seeds you know why for research purposes the support would include this senate bill that is attached  i do have it provided for you for your review as well so something like this would also be a an act that we  mr couch thank you mr chair for bringing this up i know we've discussed it before and i guess the question i would have is this moves a little bit further than what we had asked before this is saying hey let's let's allow to be cultivated here maybe in a pilot project but at least remove all the state  placements for trying to grow it here so long as it's industrial hemp and that's what i can see in the bill is that your interpretation of this is are you talking about say representative from the house side his bill goes through what we would just be we would be caught in the in the corner by certainly we can't support ng because we never we actually a more broad ok which is just for clarification i don't believe the states supports it it's a federal issue and that's it's been the hampering of all of this it's been a federal issue it's not the state you know and i don't care about removing cannabis as marijuana as illegal and that's always been been been presented and the fear until the fish changes it becomes a very difficult situation to ask the farmer to go ahead and go for and plant all these crops with the knowing with the knowledge that the fish could come in and say no this is illegal and that's one of the other challenge we face this is really a national challenge because across the board the industry have tried the united states there many many states that want to do it there are many groups that are ready to do to work on this but again the fish have continuously said no this is illegal and we will not allow it and that's why this real challenge has been we had to grown for educational purposes and research and that's why you know we we stayed with the pilot program and the research part of it so that it is legal to do that is that we're saying can we do it here on maui because what you guys grow into a while who maybe they not necessarily fit mally can we try it out here you know and that's what the result is purporting to say is we understand that's what the intent was keeping my in that thirteen states have established a commercial industrial hemp program by statute now whether or not the the feds say yes or no that's a different subject they have it ready to go so that if the feds finally say yes ok industrial hemp is good to go there there and i think that if we remove the word pilot i think that will put us in in line with those states s discussion ok we're all good at this time the chair will entertain a motion to recommend adoption of the proposed resolution with amendments urging the support of the establishment of a program to allow the cultivation of industrial hemp and and distribution of its seeds in hawaii attached as an exhibit and the filing of county communication fourteen dash two no two excuse five eyes no no motion care thank you very much members it was a long agenda but we got through it and i'm very happy the broncos are going to the super bowl