Section 15-15-127 - Standards and criteria for the reclassification or rezoning of important agricultural lands(a) Any land use district boundary amendment or change in zoning involving important agricultural lands identified pursuant to this subchapter shall be considered as, and meet the submittal requirements for, a district boundary amendment under this chapter.(b) An application for a special permit involving important agricultural lands shall include evidence that the request has been referred to the state department of agriculture and the state office of planning for review and comment and contain as part of the petition any comments or recommendations made by both the state department of agriculture and the state office of planning.(c) In addition to the criteria set forth in subchapter 8, any decision by the commission or county pursuant to this section shall specifically consider, and find by a preponderance of the evidence, that: (1) The land to be reclassified is not critical for agriculture based on the amount of similarly suited lands in the area and the State as a whole;(2) The proposed district boundary amendment or zone change will not harm the productivity or viability of existing agricultural activity in the area, or adversely affect the viability of other agricultural activities or operations that share infrastructure, processing, marketing, or other production-related costs or facilities with the agricultural activities on the land in question; (3) The district boundary amendment or zone change will not cause the fragmentation of or intrusion of nonagricultural uses into largely intact areas of lands identified by the State as important agricultural lands that create residual parcels of a size that would preclude viable agricultural use;(4) The public benefit to be derived from the proposed action is justified by a need for additional lands for nonagricultural purposes;(5) The proposed district boundary amendment or zone change will not negatively impact the ability or capacity of state and county agencies to provide and support additional agricultural infrastructure or services in the area;(6) The public benefit from the proposed district boundary amendment or zone change outweighs the benefits of retaining the land for agricultural purposes;(7) The proposed action will have no significant impact upon the viability of agricultural operations on adjacent agricultural lands;(8) The decision-making criteria of subchapter 8 governing decisions of the land use commission on district boundary amendments have been met; and(9) The decision-making criteria adopted by each county to govern decisions of county decision-making authorities under this chapter have been met.(d) The reclassification of lands designated as important agricultural shall be based upon written findings' of fact and conclusions of law pursuant to subchapters 7 and 11.(e) A reclassification of lands designated as important agricultural lands shall be by an affirmative vote of two-thirds of the membership to which the commission is entitled. (1) If the petition is not approved by a vote of two-thirds of the membership of the commission, it shall be deemed denied. (2) The commission shall not accept any petition to designate lands as important agricultural lands covering substantially the same request for substantially the same land as had previously been denied by the commission within one year of the date of filing of findings of fact and conclusions of law denying the petition, (f) The commission may, upon petition by the farmer or landowner of lands designated as important agricultural lands, remove all or a portion of those important agricultural lands from the "important agricultural lands" designation if, after a hearing held pursuant to subchapter 14, the commission finds upon a preponderance of the evidence that a sufficient supply of water is no longer available to allow profitable farming of the land due to governmental actions, acts of God, or other causes beyond the farmer's or landowner's reasonable control.(g) The commission may only remove an important agricultural land designation on lands originally designated as important agricultural lands pursuant to a declaratory order that both designated land as important agricultural lands and reclassified land as urban, rural or conservation, or a combination thereof, with the prior authorization of the legislature as expressed by a two-thirds vote of each house of the legislature voting separately,[Eff and comp 11/2/2013; comp 10/18/2019] (Auth: HRS §§ 205-1, 205-7, 205-45) (Imp: HRS § 205-50)