COM 0176.128 2006-2008 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home

(ZGG~ ~~GNJ~'LP ~f~.,~~ July 9, zoos The Honorable Brenda Ford, Chair Committee on Public Works & Intergovernmental Affairs Hawaii County Council Councilroom Ben Franklin Building, 2"d Floor 333 Kilauea Avenue Hilo, HI 96'720 Facsimile: (8081 961-8912 E-Mall: counciltestimony@co.huwuii.hi.us Dear Chair Ford: RE: Bill 5i, An Ordinance Amending Chapter 2'7, Flood Control, Hawaii County Code 1983 (2005 Edition), as Amended, Relating to Stormwater Management I am Bruce Barrett, Executive Vice President of Castle & Cooke Homes Hawaii, Inc. Castle & Cooke strongly opposes Bill 5t. Bil15i will stop development of our current Wehilani at Waikoloa project, plans for which we received a Planned Unit Development Permit No. '7z (PUD o4-02) approved by Hawaii County. In addition to severe, negative impacts on development, Bill 51 will negatively impact Hawaii County residents by stopping or severely impeding the supply of home ownership opportunities for Hawaii families and adding additional cost and time to the production and delivery of homes. It is our understanding that Bi1151 was originally intended to be a "housekeeping" measure, proposing revisions to the Hawaii County Code to ensure compliance with various Federal and State regulations including those of the Federal Emergency Management Administration. However, due to certain additional amendments, professional engineers, developers and others have described this bill as "extremely problematic," and have raised, among other things, the following concerns regarding the bill: • Conflicts with existing law and rules; • Technical requirements based on ambiguous and undefined terms; • Procedural inaccuracies; • Arbitrary design standards io times more restrictive than EPA requirements; and • Potentially detrimental impacts. We do support the original intent of the bill - to ensure compliance with various Federal and State regulations. However, after reviewing the most recent provisions of this bill we are strongly opposed to this bill in its present form, as it presents technical problems (as described above) that will stop or impede the supply of new housing opportunities for residents and will result in extensive additional development costs that are ultimately passed on to home buyers. We respectfully recommend that Bill $i be revised back to its original intent and content as presented by the Hawaii County Department of Public Works. Thank you for the opportunity to express our views on this matter.