Bill 10 & how it affects the industry:
The purpose of Bill 10 is to update the Land Use Ordinance (last updated nearly 30 years ago). Bill 10 sets forth a new table defining permitted uses and regulations for all county-zoned lands.
Depending on its final draft, Bill 10 can affect our industry in 1 of 2 ways:
It can be a positive outcome if Bill 10 acknowledges the fact that events CAN happen on AG land. The current State LUO does not allow any events/tourism on AG land, so this would be a huge win for events.
With too many restrictions, Bill 10 can be very detrimental to our industry. If they limit the amount of events, or size of events, it can hurt a lot of the larger venues trying to legally operate.
Page and Information updated as of 6/1/2023
How do I follow what is happening with this Bill?
You can get a current copy of the Bill here: https://hnldoc.ehawaii.gov/hnldoc/measure/2469
The site is updated with the current version of the Bill along with public testimony.
How to read the Bill? (We’re not lawyers!)
Language suggestion changes are underlined: this means the underlined wording is new to the Ordinance.
Language that has strikethrough: this means that this is currently how the Ordinance (Rule) is written and the proposal is to eliminate it.
More information about lawmaking: LAWMAKING 101
What is the history of Bill 10?
In its first draft, Bill 10 had the following:
Restricted weddings on agricultural land
Limited to 2 weddings per week
Under 50 people
No buses could bring guests to/from the venue.
Its current draft is a lot more lenient, and we are still asking for more revisions. We’d like them to remove mention of weddings, so it’s fair and equitable to all events on AG land.
Bill 10 is in the Zoning and Planning Committee (Committee Chair Kia’aina) and will stay there for a few months while they go through this very large, very extensive bill.