COM 0176.175 2006-2008 - Laserfiche WebLink

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BACKGROUND Bill 151 is a result of problems with Council revisions to Bill 51. Drafts 2. 3 and 4. We understand that Bill 151 is an attempt by a Council member to address the problems and complications caused by that Council member's revisions to Bill 51. We have been informed that the text for the original Bill 51 was originally intended by the Hawaii County Department of Public Works Department ("DPW") 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 and that the original DPW draft bill satisfied the federal and state requirements. However, due to certain initial arbitrary amendments made by that Council members in Bill 51, Drafts 2, 3 and 4 ("additional arbitrary requirements") - - - professional engineers, developers and others described Drafts 2,3 and 4 of Bill 51 as "extremely problematic," and have raised, among other things, the following concerns regarding Bill 51: • Additional arbitrary requirements which are not based on scientific or engineering principles, practices and considerations; • conflicts with existing law and rules; • Additional arbitrary design standards more restrictive than federal and state requirements; • Additional arbitrary technical requirements based on ambiguous and undefined terms; • Additional arbitrary requirements which unreasonably restrict use of private property and increase costs of building affordable and market homes and business buildings; • Procedural inaccuracies; • Potentially detrimental impacts. As a result of the overwhelming criticism, several public informational meetings were held, which included Council members, DPW representatives, professional engineers, the members of the community. The County did the right thing by allowing professional and public comments. New Bill 151 still has major problems. While the County allowed the professionals and public to attend informational meetings, it appears that the professional engineers and community did not take part in the drafting of this new Bill 151. As explained in the August 3, 2007 transmittal to the Council Chair, this new Council bill was created based on private discussions between one Council member, the administration and staff from two Hawaii County departments and the Office of the County Clerk. It is claimed that Bill 151 reflects the effort of this small group to satisfy the minimum NFIP requirements and includes "additional changes to Chapter 27 as well." Many of these "additional changes." however, are arbitrary and are not based on scientific or engineering principles, practices and considerations. As a result, Bill 151 is still plagued with the same critical flaws described above 2