COM 0176.014 2006-2008 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Honorable Brenda Ford Chair Committee on Public Works and Intergovernmental Relations and Members of the Hawaii County Council March 22, 2007 Page 2 b. Civil engineers may have difficulty certifying that a development, particularly farms and residences, will not increase the likelihood of flooding or erosion in other areas. "Likelihood" needs to be clarified and explained. c. This section has no relationship to Chapter 27 or its purpose to regulate or restrict land use and subdivisions based on topography. This conflicts with Chapter 4 of the County Charter and Chapter 2, Article 7 of the Hawaii County Code that delegates this authority to the Planning Director. These provisions should be addressed in Chapter 23 and/or Chapter 25. 5. The intent of Item (d), on page 20, is to address only Flood Zone A in this section, which has no Base Flood Elevations (BFE) on the FIRMS (Flood Insurance Rate Maps). The first sentence should probably read and other developments in any location or flood zone any shall The requirement is necessary only for areas in Flood Zone A and has no applicability or value in any other location. 6. Item (d) (1), page 20, the purpose of this section is strictly informational. Public Works does not accept or process subdivision and development applications. This is done by our Planning Department. Many Federal and State permits, including 404 permits are not obtained until a developer is reasonably certain their construction plans meet County and State approval. For example, because NPDES permits are based on construction plans, a developer cannot get an NPDES permit at the time of application. They don't know the improvements the County will require of them and as a result, they will not have usable construction plans to submit their NPDES application. 7. Item (e) page 20, please justify with specific examples accompanied with an economic analysis, to answer, why it is necessary to use a 100-year design storm standard? The 10- yearstandard that we proposed meets EPA water quality requirements. Further, we have been using a 10-year storm as the minimum design for almost 24 years with more than reasonable results. It is also the minimum standard for the County of Maui, City & County of Honolulu and the State DOT Highway Department. Wehwill be present in Hilo for the April 3 meeting to answer any questions. Bruce C. McClure, P. E. Director BCM:vmht County of Hawa~ i is an Equal Opportunity Provider and Employer.