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COUNTY OF HAWAII <br />ORDINANCE NO. <br />STATE OF HAWAII <br />BILL NO. 246 <br />06 104 <br />Draft 5 <br />AN ORDINANCE AMENDING CHAPTER 23, HAWAII COUNTY CODE 1983 <br />(2005 EDITION, AS AMENDED), RELATING TO INFORMATION REQUIRED FOR <br />SUBMITTAL OF A SUBDIVISION APPLICATION, REVISIONS TO CERTAIN TIME AND <br />STREET REQUIREMENTS, AND MINOR "HOUSEKEEPING" CHANGES TO THE <br />SUBDIVISION CODE. <br />BE IT ORDAINED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE COUNTY OF HAWAII: <br />SECTION 1. Purpose and Findings. A recent Hawaii Supreme Court decision <br />invalidates practices that the County planning department has followed for at least thirty years, <br />and forces the County to adopt changes in the subdivision code, or risk invalidating hundreds of <br />past and pending subdivision applications. The court decision, Leslie vs. Board of Appeals, held <br />that it was mandatory that some information be contained in subdivision applications, and upheld <br />a decision of the Third Circuit Court invalidating a subdivision that the County had approved <br />without the required information. <br />The subdivision code states that the initial application for a subdivision, the "preliminary <br />plat', is supposed to contain certain information. For many years, the practice has been to defer <br />some of this information to a later stage in the subdivision application, or to accept the <br />preliminary plat for further processing while asking the subdivider to supplement the <br />information. The most significant difference between past practice and the strict letter of the <br />Code is section 23- 66(7), which requires that the application contain a description of <br />"[i]mprovements to be made by the developer and the approximate time such improvements are <br />to be completed. Sufficient detail regarding proposed improvements shall be submitted so that <br />they may be checked for compliance with the objectives of these regulations, State laws and <br />other applicable County ordinances." The actual practice has been that the preliminary plat is <br />circulated to the department of public works and department of water supply, who then give a <br />general description of the standard of road and water system that must be installed. This is made <br />a requirement of the tentative approval of the subdivision. The subdivider then prepares detailed <br />