[§167-12]  Lands included within irrigation
projects.  Except as otherwise expressly permitted in the chapter, lands to
be included within an irrigation project shall be only those used or to be used
in farming.  The number of acres of agricultural and pasture land of each land
occupier within the project shall be determined by the board of agriculture and
shall not be increased or decreased, nor shall any such land included within a
project thereafter be withdrawn, after final determination to construct the
project, except in the manner and with the limitations specified in this
chapter by redefining the boundaries of a project.  The project shall include
only such lands as can be adequately irrigated by the quantity of water and
facilities to be provided under normal conditions of supply.  No land which at
the time of formation of the project is irrigated, or is devoted to the
cultivation for commercial purposes of sugar, pineapples, coffee, bananas,
citrus, papayas, or macadamia nuts, or other horticultural crops, whether or
not the land so devoted is irrigated, or is being devoted to an industrial or
townsite or other use of greater economic value than agriculture shall be
included in the project if the owner of the land (or the land occupier thereof
if other than the owner, in the event that the land occupier is legally
chargeable with the acreage assessments) shall object in writing to the
inclusion.  The foregoing provisions of this paragraph shall be applicable to
all irrigation projects.



Notwithstanding the limitation expressed in the
foregoing paragraph, lands of the State used by the University of Hawaii for
experimental farms may be included in irrigation projects, provided the board
of regents undertakes the payment of water tolls and acreage assessments and
for the purposes of the inclusion the University of Hawaii shall be deemed a
land occupier within the meaning of this chapter.  Lands within the farms shall
be assessed accordingly as the same are of the character of agricultural or
pasture lands, as defined in this chapter, although they are used for
experimental purposes.  The assessments shall not, however, become a lien upon
the lands. [L 1987, c 306, pt of §1]