Lingle aims to
reevaluate farm land
designationsThe Senate president says
the move seems to favor development
Hawaii's Democratic-controlled Legislature needs to realize that even a logical and unemotional reclassification of the 2 million acres now designated for agriculture will never satisfy all the diverse interests, according to Republican Gov. Linda Lingle.
"Everyone knows that the system we have is not working well," Lingle said. "It's not working well to provide true ag lands to make sure they are available in perpetuity, and it's not working well as far as having land we need for people to have their own homes."
Senate President Robert Bunda, however, said he sees Lingle's push to re-examine agriculture land designations as a move to open more lands for development. "That's not good," he said.
The governor acknowledges her interest is to provide more land for housing and, as a former county mayor, to have decisions made at the county level.
"If you restrain the amount of available land to build houses, you drive up the cost of the land that is available," she said.
Lingle noted that over the past 25 years, the state has been working to narrow the classifications of agriculture lands, first through the Land Evaluation and Site Assessment program and more recently the Agriculture Lands of Importance to the State of Hawaii mapping project.
Under the current system, lands that don't fall neatly into the major categories of urban, conservation or agriculture, "are put into agriculture by default," she said.
Complicating the issue is the fact that there are zoning powers with both the state and the counties, creating a two-tiered system to decide land use policy.
State figures show that of the 2 million acres designated for agriculture use, 1.4 million are being used.
Acknowledging that the Democratic lawmakers are unlikely to go along with the traditional GOP stand to eliminate the state's 42-year-old Land Use Commission, Lingle's administration is working with all interested parties on a state reclassification plan to be submitted to next year's Legislature, possibly suggesting a new "rural" category.
The pressure to use marginal agriculture lands for development is the latest issue defining the differences in the political philosophies of the first GOP administration in 40 years and the Legislature's Democrats.
The prime example, according to Lingle, is the 1,550-acre Hokulia luxury housing development along three miles of agriculture-designated coastline above historic Kealakekua Bay in South Kona by 1250 Oceanside Partners, a joint venture of Japan Airlines and Arizona golf course community developer Lyle Anderson.
The embattled county-approved project to develop 750 home lots priced from $1 million to $8 million, an 18-hole golf course designed by Jack Nicklaus, a spa, tennis courts, a beach house and a club was halted Sept. 9 by a court order.
Circuit Judge Ronald Ibarra ruled the project does not qualify as primarily agricultural use and therefore requires a reclassification by the use Land Use Commission.
Craig Watase, president of Mark Development and past president of the Building Industry Association, scoffed that anyone could think the Hokulia property was ever agriculture land.
"Anybody that has seen that Hokulia land before they touched it knows that nothing was growing out there, not even weeds," he said. "There were no cows going to be out there, no crops. They made that place beautiful only because of their investment and no ag was ever going to be done there."
Lingle said the Hokulia controversy is giving momentum to her administration's efforts to change the current system because it's resulting in job layoffs and uncertainty for people who have made purchases.
"It came forward in an unfortunate way. If something like this was going to be decided, you want it decided when the first dollar is about to be spent and not $200 million down the road," Lingle said. "Which side is going to win out in this judicial proceeding remains to be seen, but the fact is the classification system that we have not only allowed this to happen, it encouraged it to happen."
Bunda (D-Kaena-Wahiawa-Pupukea) said he's sure the Legislature will be "extremely cautious" about doing anything that would diminish the state's agriculture land inventory."
Agricultural land is limited and needs to be protected, he said.
"Once you start to water down the ag classification, that means you want development," Bunda said, adding that's the way he reads Lingle's intentions.
The governor faulted the Legislature's self-serving political interests for stalling substantial reform in the land classifications, despite 25 years of trying.
"I think there's an argument to be made that sometimes you just can't get a consensus and you still have to move forward and do the right thing, or what you think is the right thing," she said, adding, "If it's wrong, you can go amend it."
The history of the Legislature has been to tell the interested parties to go off and come up with a consensus solution "and then we can vote for it without any repercussions because everybody's for it," Lingle said.
The governor has the obvious support from developers, including the Building Industry Association, which endorsed her gubernatorial campaign last year.
"It's time to step back and ask, 'Is something broken?' If it is, let's go and fix it," said Dean Uchida, executive director of the Land Use Research Foundation, a lobbying group for developers.
When the Land Use Commission was established 42 years ago, there was an issue of protecting the state's interest in land use, but the county governments are now equipped to handle their own urban, agriculture and rural planning, Uchida said.
