Last year, the state Land Use Commission ruled that ag land proposed for the Koa Ridge project in Mililani can be reclassified from agricultural to urban for a 5,000 home master-planned community.

The Hawaii Sierra Club appealed the decision in court. Earlier this month, Eric Seitz, an attorney for the group, argued that the LUC decision should be thrown out because the land qualifies as “important agricultural lands.”

In 2005 and 2008 the state Legislature passed laws giving teeth to a 1978 constitutional amendment requiring the state to protect agricultural lands. Counties are supposed to identify land that should receive the IAL designation, which means it can’t be taken out of ag without a two-thirds vote by the LUC and Legislature. 

But for the most part, this hasn’t happened. 

Attorney Paul Schwind, provides an in-depth look at the recent court ruling on the blog inversecondemnation.com.

He writes: 

In this case, the bottom line seems to be that despite all the constitutional and statutory policy in place, no important agricultural lands have yet been officially mapped and designated pursuant to Act 183.  Absent that result, it is difficult if not impossible to overturn a land use district boundary amendment as contrary to such a designation, when it does not yet exist. The Sierra Club’s appeal may be prescient, but it does not, and cannot yet, lead to a dispositive ruling grounded in the constitutional requirement to conserve and protect important agricultural lands. 

Next stop, the Court of Appeals?

Read the full post here. 

(Photo: Flickr, Ken Lund)

— Sophie Cocke