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sediment or suspended particulate matter discharging into the ocean and broadening the <br />floodplain to include a section of Alii Lani, by your own Rule 9, an EA is required. <br />Additionally Mr. Yuen was kind enough to send a letter to Stanford Carr and Kahakai Estates <br />asking for the use of the easement road in times of Civil Defense declared coastal evacuations for <br />tsunamis or hurricanes. In the last paragraph he states, among other things, It may also not be <br />possible to use the emergency evacuation route during construction of these roads.‚ The lack of <br />a road here in the event of an emergency concerns the safety of thousands of citizens along Alii <br />Drive. I find it incomprehensible that this emergency evacuation route would be compromised <br />before any other replacement is built. <br />In the room today there are many concerned citizens who either live on or near Alii Drive or in <br />SunStone€s other developments. We are all gathered here because we are living history of what <br />SunStone has created in the past, and we are really skeptical about SunStone€s newest proposal. <br />Intheeventthatfloodingoccurs,thesetestimonieswouldbeamatterofpublicrecord,andas <br />such it could place the County of Hawaii, the developer and the Planning Commission at a risk <br />for lawsuits to recover damages as a result of the failure to recognize and respond to the dangers <br />of building in a known floodplain. <br />I ask that the Planning Commission abide by its own Rules and at the very least have an <br />environment assessment done before addressing the issue of an SMA. At the very best case <br />scenario, of course, would be to deny an SMA to this development today. Thank you. <br />ALAMEDA:Thank you, Ms. Fox. Any questions? Thank you very much. <br />Moving on to Charles. I believe you€ve stated your name and address already. <br />FLAHERTY:Yes, sir. <br />ALAMEDA:Okay. So you can proceed with your testimony. <br />FLAHERTY:Thank you, Chairman, and thank you for allowing me to testify <br />today. I€m here to testify against the SMA application 05-005. The subject property, as it has <br />been pointed out, is in the Waiaha floodplain; and I have actually submitted to you all a DVD <br />that was prepared by the Kona Soil and Water Conservation District through a FEMA grant that <br />will help you to understand just how dangerous this proposed project is relative to the realities of <br />the floodways in Kona. The floodways in Kona are immature floodways. They are still <br />changing; they are changing course, they are changing volume. In addition to that, we€ve seen <br />unprecedented amount of development occurring here in Kona. And more importantly, up <br />mauka we are seeing extensive areas that are being deforested and converted into coffee land. <br />Forested land absorbs far, far more water than grass land covered with coffee trees. And so <br />additional amounts of water are being generated above this project, and will be flowing down <br />hill. This is going to increase the hazard to this development. <br />In addition to that, I€ve spoken with the Natural Resource Conservation Service, and they shared <br />with me that channelization of Kona€s floodways in the near shore environment is not a prudent <br />idea. As you can see, I€ve attached two maps ƒ do you have my letter there I submitted to you <br />all? There are two maps there. I€d like to point out to you that both the Splitflow No. 1 and No. <br />2, it becomes wider as it approaches the shoreline. This is a natural occurrence that causes the <br />10EXHIBIT C <br /> <br />