For the first time in nearly 30 years, the city is overhauling its land use ordinances, proposing large- scale changes that would affect agricultural land, wind farms, housing and short-term rentals.

The updates are outlined in the Department of Planning and Permitting’s roughly 240-page Bill 10, which will go before the full Council at its meeting at 10 a.m. Wednesday.

“It’s a comprehensive overhaul and update of our land use ordinance,” said DPP Director Dean Uchida. “So it’s taking the entire ordinance, Chapter 21, and then kind of redoing it, bringing it up to date, removing some of the antiquated stuff. It’s been over 30 years since they took a comprehensive look at the land use ordinances.”

Several main components of Bill 10 already are generating discussion and amendments to the measure.

One of the main changes affecting owners of ag land would set a percentage of land that must be dedicated to active farming. The original bill stipulated that farmers had to use 75% of their land for active farming of crops or livestock keeping. During a Zoning and Planning Committee meeting Aug. 25, the figure was adjusted to 50%.

“We’re trying to tighten up things on the use of agricultural lands to make sure that agricultural activities are occurring on the land,” Uchida said. “They’re trying to meet requirements that a certain percentage of the land has to be used for agriculture, (but) some farmers, their land is not productive, so you have gullies and rocky areas. And so that’s part of the debate we’re having right now at Council.”

Hawaii Farm Bureau Director Brian Miyamoto expressed concerns about the proposed rule designating a percentage of land for active farming and new restrictions on agritourism, which many farmers use to supplement income from their crop and livestock operations.

“We absolutely want to protect our agricultural lands. We believe agricultural land should be used primarily for farming, and then have some accessory use,” he testified during the Aug. 25 committee meeting.

Agritourism is a “value added to operations to assist them with their productivity and to help their businesses be profitable so they can provide farming,” Miyamoto said.

The proposed limits on agritourism include restricting structures used for those activities to no more than 10% of a property and allowing only one wedding or other destination event a week with a maximum capacity of 50 people.

However, Council Member Brandon Elefante, who chairs the Zoning and Planning Committee, said people who currently have conditional use permits for these types of activities on their property would likely be granted “nonconforming” status to allow them to continue.

Another controversial issue in Bill 10 involves wind energy facilities, which would not be permitted within a mile of properties in residential, apartment, apartment mixed use and resort-zoned districts.

The bill originally proposed a 1.25-mile setback, which is still being considered, Elefante said.

Currently, the law requires wind turbines to be located away from neighboring property lines at a distance that is at least equal to the height of the structure.

Council members have previously introduced different setbacks, with Council Member Heidi Tsune­yoshi proposing a 5-mile distance from adjacent properties, and Council Chair Tommy Waters offering two measures by request of the city administration, one mandating a 1.25-mile setback and another for a setback of double the height of the structure.

All three proposals stalled after first reading.

Elefante added that existing wind farms such as Kahuku Wind Farm, Kawailoa Wind and Na Pua Makani, which would be in compliance with either a 1-mile or 1.25-mile restriction, would be allowed to continue operations under nonconforming status if the new law is passed.

One of the main changes Uchida pointed out in Bill 10 would allow construction of multifamily homes on certain commercial properties.

“That’s kind of targeting redevelopment in the King Street-Beretania corridor, Waialae Avenue and sections of Kapahulu, lower Nuuanu … There’s areas where you have commercial activities occurring on the ground floor but not much residential around there,” he said.

“So during the day, you might have some activity but as soon as work is over, there’s no customers. Basically what we’re trying to do is create mixed-use neighborhoods in these areas. So you can imagine what the Beretania-King Street corridor would look like if you had added a little bit more multifamily (housing) on top of the existing commercial (to) energize the streets, provide more business opportunities and also provide more affordable housing.”

However, during the Aug. 25 committee meeting, the Council amended the bill to allow this type of development only in “transit- oriented development” areas along the rail line to avoid overdevelopment of certain neighborhoods.

Uchida said DPP will continue to discuss whether this type of development would be appropriate for other areas as well. The multifamily dwelling add-ons being proposed would still have to adhere to existing height and density limits.

Another proposal in Bill 10 attempts to address affordable teacher housing. Currently, the city leases land to the state Department of Education for uses such as office space and storage of bus fleets. However, an amendment proposed by Waters would instead make that land available for affordable housing units for public school teachers making below 80% of the annual median income.

Bill 10 also would adjust land use maps to allow short-term rentals in Ko Olina Hillside Villas and Ko Olina Fairways. Although both properties are part of the Ko Olina resort community, the map that was passed in April dictating where short-term rentals are permitted did not include either of those communities. However, an amendment to Bill 10 proposed by Council Member Andria Tupola aims to remedy that.

Colin Moore, director of the University of Hawaii Public Policy Center, said comprehensive “omnibus bills” like Bill 10 are usually introduced for expediency, since it can be faster to pass one big bill than several smaller ones, and also for political reasons.

“Omnibus bills are useful to policymakers because it becomes almost too big to fail. There’s a kind of a nucleus of the bill that people are very supportive of, but you can put in other more controversial things in the bill that might be difficult to pass by themselves, because you’re passing it as part of this big package,” he said.

“So it means that it provides a little cover for policymakers … (who) can say, ‘Well, I wasn’t happy with everything in the bill, but the core of it was really good and that’s why I voted for it.’”

Uchida explained that submitting multiple bills to significantly adjust something as technical as the city’s land use ordinances runs the risk of creating inconsistencies that can cause significant problems down the road.