2026-03-02 PL-BOA-2026-000131 Petition

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Statement of the nature of Appeal and the Relief Requested. Include Director's decision and decision date: The denial for a water variance prior to subdivision under County of Hawaii Planning Department Rules of Practice and Procedure Rule 22. Water Variance. Relief requested is the reversal of denial and issuance of the water variance request as permitted under Rule 22. Planning director Jeff Darrow reviewed the application materials and comments from the respective agencies, "the Department finds no special or unusual circumstances justifying the variance." Letter dated Feb 6, 2026 Statement of how the Director's decision violates the law; or is clearly erroneous; or is arbitrary or capricious, or characterized by an abuse of discretion or clearly unwarranted exercise of discretion: Section 23-14 of HCC provides the Director with the general authority to grant variances. While there are water units "available" that was stated by the department of water supply ,there aren't the facilities or infrastructure to bring the available water units to the property. Rule 22 of the Planning Department's Rules of Practice and Procedure state in 22-2 "catchment variances allow property owners a way to subdivide property when there is no public water system in the vicinity, and when it would be prohibitively expensive to construct a private water system." The January 9th, 2026 letter from DWS states very clearly that they don't have the infrastructure to provide the water that they say is "now available", indicating that at a prior time they didn't. They say that in order for the owners to have this available water that the owners need to install 1,425 LF of 6" iron ductile pipe! To require a two (2) lot subdivision to install that much infrastructure is an unusual circumstance. The director misstates the "Intent and Purpose" of the variance when he says "a variance from water requirements in the subdivision code is to allow alternatives when no municipal water is available." The planning director's own rules state a variance is proper and allowable "when it would be prohibitively expensive to construct" catchment variances are allowed. The director's denial is clearly erroneous in not following Rule 22 Statement of any other relevant facts: The denial letter dated Feb 6, 2026 seems to emphasize the fact that "water is available". It's not available at the property's location. If there is insufficient space on this form to provide the information, then please include supplemental documents. \\COH01\planning\public\BOA\Forms and Labels\Application Forms\APPEAL 2021-07- PL or PW Dir.docx Revised April 2021