2026-02-05 Kellberg's Pre-Hearing Brief (PL-BOA-205-000124)

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ultimate determination of mootness,and the Petition fails the third element of issue preclusion. As a result, the Planning Director clearly erred in applying the doctrine of issue preclusion, because the issue raised in Kellberg's Petition is not identical to the previous litigation and was neither actually litigated nor essential to the ICA's holding of mootness. B. The Declaratory Ruling Procedure is Precisely Intended for Factual Scenarios Presented by the Pruglo Lots. The Planning Director erred when he held that a declaratory ruling was improper for Kellberg's Petition,because the Petition is not"another attempt to invalidate the subdivision" and ample uncertainty remains around the Pruglo Lots' property rights. See Denial at 6. For the reasons discussed above, Kellberg's Petition is distinct from his previous litigation. The County's refusal to rescind the Subdivision means that the developer does not need to re-subdivide the property, but such refusal does little to elucidate the rights and obligations of the Pruglo Lots moving forward. if the lots did not have to comply with the zoning and subdivision codes to gain approval, to what extent must they do so moving forward? Contrary to the Planning Director's Denial,the factual scenario created by the Subdivision presents a rare,enigmatic situation perfectly ripe for declaratory ruling. "Any interested person may petition an agency for a declaratory order as to the applicability of any statutory provision or any of rule or order of the agency." HRS § 91-8. The declaratory ruling process "is meant to provide a means of seeking a determination of whether and in what way some statute, agency rule, or order applies to the factual situation raised by an interested person. Citizens Against Reckless Dev. v. Zoning Bd. of Appeals, 114 Haw. 184, 196-97 (2007). Furthermore, the declaratory ruling procedure only makes sense "where the applicability of relevant law is unknown, either because the agency has not yet acted upon particular factual circumstances, or for some other reason the applicability of some provisions of law have not been 13