A proposal that would allow owners of prime agricultural lands to covert 15 percent of their acreage for new housing development represents a potential windfall worth tens of millions of dollars.

The controversial measure, which was passed by the Legislature this year without a full hearing, aims to protect Hawaii’s dwindling ag lands.

It allows landowners to petition the state Land Use Commission to lock up 85 percent of their high-quality agricultural land in exchange for allowing them to use 15 percent of their acreage for urban or rural use.

Opponents say the bill accelerate the loss of farm land by creating rural residential subdivisions that inflate land values and increase the cost of farming.

Here’s how some of the state’s biggest landowners could theoretically benefit from the bill:

– Kamehameha Schools, which owns 200,000 acres of agricultural lands, could seek to convert 30,000 acres of those lands for housing,

– Alexander & Baldwin Inc. could see 6,000 acres of its 40,000 acres of ag land used for residential development;

– About 1,350 of James Campbell Co.’s ag lands could be dedicate for future housing;

– Of Maui Land & Pineapple Co. could add another 630 acres to its inventory of residential development;

– Of Dole Food Co.’s 2,900 acres of agricultural lands, 435 could go to new home building.

And that doesn’t include Parker Ranch’s vast landholdings. The ranch owns more than 150,000 acres throughout the Big Island and most of it is zone for agricultural uses.

Of course, none of the landowners are going to try to convert their lands overnight.
The landowners also need to follow the county permitting procedures and other state land use laws.

But the conversion will allow them to cut years off of the zoning process.

One would have expected the state Legislature to have at least held hearings on the bill which such a broad impact on property values, land use and the future of farming in Hawaiçi.

The passage of the bill by conference committee members in the waning days of the legislative session without public debate represent a return to the bad old days of smoke-filled rooms and back-room deals.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 3rd, 2008 at 8:00 pm and is filed under Biz Bites. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.