LIHU‘E — Farmers and legislators took the first step toward reworking an important agricultural bill Wednesday. The Kaua‘i County Council’s Planning Committee discussed deficiencies in the Planning Department’s recommendations for long-discussed farm worker housing legislation and circulated draft amendments for
LIHU‘E — Farmers and legislators took the first step toward reworking an important agricultural bill Wednesday.
The Kaua‘i County Council’s Planning Committee discussed deficiencies in the Planning Department’s recommendations for long-discussed farm worker housing legislation and circulated draft amendments for proposed changes.
Bill No. 2318, if adopted, would clear the way for farm owners who live on agricultural land but have already exhausted their existing density limits to apply for permits to build additional dwellings on their land to serve as housing for farm workers, thereby reducing the required monetary compensation and helping local farms attain profitability and the island achieve sustainability and food independence, proponents said.
Planning Committee Chair Jay Furfaro, who introduced the bill last month, said the housing component is just part of the council’s commitment to helping agriculture work on Kaua‘i.
While farmers and others have voiced support for the bill, and the County Council seems to be behind the initiative, discussion Wednesday centered around the need to strike a balance between helping the farmers and ensuring that loopholes are closed and ag land abuse is kept to a minimum.
Former council member JoAnn Yukimura, who helped work on the bill with Furfaro during her last term, described the challenge as a “tightrope.”
Specifically at issue were a provision that would define “farm worker housing” in Section 8-1.5 of the Kaua‘i County Code, a question of the relevance of unused densities on condominium property regime units in to the same parcel as the applicant’s, and confusion over whether all density must be used up before farm worker housing can be granted.
Committee members took an initial crack at clarifying those questions with four draft amendments, which were distributed to the public for informational purposes but were not technically introduced.
The first of four draft amendments, proposed by Furfaro, would essentially reduce the amount of annual gross sales required in the preceding two years from $35,000 — a figure adopted from a similar Maui ordinance — to $12,000. It would also require applicants to meet two of three standard farming criteria to qualify.
A similar proposal from Lani Kawahara would reduce the gross sales requirement to $10,000 and would require applicants to meet three of four criteria.
“Having that dollar figure allows us to differentiate between the legitimate farmer and the gentleman farmer,” said Planner Ka‘aina Hull, who worked on the bill during its stay at the Planning Department and Planning Commission. “A gross sales standard is really the linchpin of the bill.”
Proposed amendments from Furfaro and Kawahara would change the definition of “farm worker,” reducing the required number of hours from 19 hours per week to 14. Furfaro said his rationale was U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development protocol that calls for no more than 30 percent of income to be applied to housing costs.
Daryl Kaneshiro’s amendment would permit a farmer to apply to designate an existing structure as farm worker housing. Earlier, he said forcing farmers to fulfill their density before allowing them to apply for farm worker housing was backwards.
Hull explained that the Planning Department’s aim when working on the bill was to ensure that those farmers who need housing but cannot currently apply for it have their avenue. Allowing applicants to preserve their existing density by applying for farm worker housing first, thereby saving potentially multi-million dollar assets for sale down the road was not a department goal, he said.
Derek Kawakami said he planned on introducing an amendment that would require third-party audits of all farms with the new housing to inspect for cleanliness, concerned that having workers live on the premises with produce could be dangerous.
“From a grocer’s standpoint, it is an increasing concern to keep our public safe and healthy,” he said.
Public testimony was allowed but restricted to not include discussion of the proposed amendments, ostensibly to keep in line with the Sunshine Law.
Some farmers took issue with the focus on preventing misuse rather than the importance of helping farmers, the original aim of the legislation.
“This is a farm worker housing bill, not a close-the-loophole-on-abuse bill,” said farmer Bill Robertson.
Tim Bynum acknowledged that the council may need to “risk some potential abuse” to ensure that the bill helps in its broader goal of securing farm land for farming, and Dickie Chang said the council was trying hard to work for farmers but could not expect a “fool-proof” bill.
Furfaro deferred further discussion to the committee’s next meeting, scheduled in two weeks for July 29, and other committee members said they hoped to see amendments formally introduced, discussed, and voted on at that date.
• Michael Levine, assistant news editor, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 252) or mlevine@kauaipubco.com
