HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.C.R. NO.	72
TWENTY-SEVENTH LEGISLATURE, 2013
STATE OF HAWAII

HOUSE CONCURRENT

RESOLUTION

 

 

urging THE PRESERVATION OF HOOPILI LANDS FOR AGRICULTURAL USE.

 

 

 

     WHEREAS, presently ninety per cent of the food supply to the State is imported, and increasing dependency on imported food would increase the State's vulnerability to natural disasters and rising fuel and oil costs; and

 

WHEREAS, currently, the State has less than two week's supply of food on the islands; and

 

     WHEREAS, there are four thousand eight hundred acres of food producing agricultural land on Oahu, and the area known as Hoopili represents 1,497 acres, or nearly one-third, of that total; and

 

     WHEREAS, the Hoopili soil is very nutrient dense and is highly fertile; approximately fifty per cent of the soil comes from two groupings, molosols and vertisols, making it some of the most fertile and productive agricultural land in the world; and

 

     WHEREAS, the Hoopili land enables the State to produce more organic and locally grown produce, making it fresher and more nutritious food for the people of the State; and

 

     WHEREAS, Hoopili produces forty per cent of Oahu's fresh broccoli, beans, romaine lettuce, and zucchini and more than seventy per cent of Oahu's fresh corn, cantaloupe, pumpkin, and honey dew melon; and

 

     WHEREAS, recently, the Land Use Commission approved a development that includes 11,750 homes on the Hoopili land; and

 

     WHEREAS, the master plan for the Hoopili development includes three million square feet of commercial space, five schools, and only one hundred fifty-nine acres for commercial farms and gardens; and

 

     WHEREAS, the development of Hoopili would add even more cars on the already congested H-1 freeway and Fort Weaver Road; and

 

     WHEREAS, to develop the Hoopili land for commercial and residential uses, a developer will have to remove several feet of the prime fertile soil, replace it with three feet of coral, and place a new top layer of soil on top of the coral; and

 

     WHEREAS, after the removal of the prime fertile soil, it will be impossible for the land to revert back to agricultural lands if needed; now, therefore,

 

     BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-seventh Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2013, the Senate concurring, that the owner of Hoopili is urged not to develop the Hoopili lands for urban use and to preserve the lands for agricultural use; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the Governor; Director of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism; Chairperson of the Land Use Commission; the Mayor of the City and County of Honolulu; the Executive Directors of D.R. Horton-Schuler Division and D.R. Horton Inc.; and Donald R. Horton of D.R. Horton Inc.

 

 

 

	OFFERED BY:	_____________________________

Report Title: 

Hoopili Development; Land Use Commission