Senate committees approve SB 443 after agencies seek Agriculture role and legal changes

Senators on the Senate Committee on Water and Land and the Senate Committee on Energy and Intergovernmental Affairs voted to pass Senate Bill 443 with amendments after testimony from state agencies and stakeholders recommended changes to how the bill would verify farming activity on agricultural district lands that host solar energy facilities. The committees adopted language moving toward making any finding that solar-occupied agricultural land is used for farming an explicit permit condition and assigned the Department of Agriculture a central role in verification.

The bill, as introduced, would have required the Board of Land and Natural Resources (BLNR) to certify that lands inside the agricultural district with solar energy facilities are also used for a farming operation. DLNR staff and several testifiers told the committees that another agency — the Hawaii Department of Agriculture (DOA) — would be a better match for the task, and the Attorney General recommended making the determination a permit condition rather than establishing a stand-alone certification requirement.

The nut graf: The change narrows the bill’s procedural requirement from a formal certification by BLNR to a condition attached to permits and shifts operational responsibility toward DOA, reflecting agency concerns about statutory authority and expertise and preserving the department’s role in enforcing agricultural use definitions.

DLNR’s witness Ian Hirokawa said the department recommended an amendment to appoint DOA as the certifying body rather than DLNR, noting the verification work aligns with DOA’s mission and expertise. Deputy Attorney General Miranda Steed told senators the Attorney General’s Office could not find an existing statutory framework to support a new certification procedure and therefore recommended the committees convert the certification into a permit condition. Frank Campetto, representing the Agribusiness Development Corporation (ADC) for Wendy Gady, supported the bill with amendments, including naming DOA as the certifier and limiting certification requirements to solar facilities on lands with a soil-productivity rating of “C.” Hunter Hevelin of the Hawaii Farmers Union also urged moving oversight to DOA and suggested aligning the measure with existing county agricultural-dedication review processes.

Committee chairs incorporated those suggestions in the adopted amendments. The committees’ amendment text replaces the original BLNR-certification language with a provision that requires demonstration that the lands are “also used for a farming operation” as defined in Hawaii Revised Statutes section 165-2 and makes that demonstration a condition of any permit authorizing solar facilities on agricultural district land. The committees also instructed staff to include the Attorney General’s recommended revision language.

The discussion made explicit distinctions between three types of remarks: agency technical comments (DOA, DLNR, Attorney General), stakeholder recommendations (ADC, Hawaii Farmers Union), and the committees’ formal direction to staff to redraft bill language. No fiscal appropriations or timetable changes were enacted in the hearing record for this bill.

Ending: With the amendment language adopted, the committees voted to pass SB 443. The bill moves forward as amended for further legislative action.

Votes at a glance: SB 443 — Committee on Water and Land: adopted (chair and committee members voted to pass with amendments). Committee on Energy and Intergovernmental Affairs: adopted (chair and committee members voted to pass with amendments).