STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1135-26

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2026

RE: H.B. No. 2585

H.D. 3

Honorable Nadine K. Nakamura

Speaker, House of Representatives

Thirty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2026

State of Hawaii

Madame:

Your Committee on Judiciary & Hawaiian Affairs, to which was referred H.B. No. 2585, H.D. 2, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO AGRICULTURAL TOURISM,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to:

(1) Establish statewide, uniform standards to promote agricultural tourism activities in the State for all counties that have adopted an agricultural tourism ordinance;

(2) Require agricultural tourism activities to be registered by the county planning department;

(3) Require agricultural tourism activities to coexist with an agricultural activity on a farming operation and be accessory and secondary to the principal farming operation; and

(4) Establish a process for the termination of an authorization for agricultural tourism activities upon a determination that the agricultural activity has ceased.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Agriculture and Biosecurity; Office of Planning and Sustainable Development; Maui County Ag Working Group; Hawaii Coffee Growers Association; Heavenly Hawaiian Farms; Kaʻū Coffee Growers Cooperative; Cacao Services, Inc.; Hawaiʻi Farm Bureau; and numerous individuals. Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from Puna Chocolate Company; Mahina Mele Farms; and Honokaʻa Chocolate. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Agribusiness Development Corporation; Office of Hawaiian Affairs; Hawaiʻi Tourism Authority; Grassroot Institute of Hawaii; and one individual.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Deleting language establishing a rebuttable presumption that the agricultural tourism activities are secondary to the principal farming operation;

(2) Deleting language providing specific examples of types of accessory facilities;

(3) Reverting to existing statutory language establishing permitted uses of agricultural lands within agricultural districts; and

(4) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity, consistency, and style.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary & Hawaiian Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2585, H.D. 2, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2585, H.D. 3.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary & Hawaiian Affairs,

____________________________

DAVID A. TARNAS, Chair