2017-10-30 Hearing Transcript - Amendments to PC Rule 9 (Joint Meeting)

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should take a very careful look at how the Department exercises the authority that you've given. And I'm not saying it's bad, I'm not saying they are doing things wrong, but I'm saying part of your responsibility as the Commission, `cause you are ultimately responsible for the administration of Chapter 205A. And you can give some authority to the Planning Department, but you still have the responsibility. And, so it's like any situation where you delegate. If you're an employer, you delegate responsibility to your employees; if you're a parent, you delegate your responsibility to your kids. You want to make sure that they exercise the authority that you give them in a manner that you think is the right way to administer the rule or to perform the task. And, I'm not saying they're wrong. I think I have some issues with some parts of it. But I think that before you continue to entrust them with your duty, you know, with your responsibility, you should take a careful look at how they performed the responsibilities you've given them in the past and how they are going to perform the further responsibilities that you give them in the future. And, that's sort of what Mr. Matsukawa was saying; it's the same, same kind of thing. But, I just think that the Commission has to say that, you know, as individual, as individual commissioners, you are responsible for the administration of the Special Management Area. You have to feel, if you're doing it, that it's being done right, or if somebody else is doing it on your behalf, that it's done right. And, you know, I think that that's going to take some careful inquiry. So that's, that's kind of my fundamental starting point both retrospectively and prospectively. I see in the Department's response to my comments they say, yeah, Mr. Vitousek makes some good points about how things were done in the past, but we're going to start doing things different now. And, you know, to me, you know, how you've done things in the past is a pretty good indicator of how you're going to do things in the future. And so I would look back and forward, you know, I would make sure that—because looking back is going to help you design a kind of controls and feedback and information flow that's going to help you ensure that going forward, things are going to be done right. So that's my overall point. My second point is that, you know, the intent of the law, 205A, was to say that there are certain types of uses and activities that are covered by the law and there are certain types that are not. In other words, the Legislature said we are going to define, we are going to say permits, SMA permits are required for all uses in the Special Management Area, all development in the Special Management Area requires a permit. Then they turn around and say we are going to define development, and they are going to say that development is defined in a certain way to include certain things, and then they are going to say there are also these areas that are exempt from the definition of development, and important ones include subdivision, you know, of some public facilities and then one I'm involved in a lot, which is single-family residence. And the, Chapter 205A-22 defines development to exclude single-family residences. There is a catchall phrase at the end of 22 to say that if the proposed use has substantial, significant environmental effects, that they can require a permit. And so, if you are a homeowner and you want to remodel your house, you are required to submit an SMA Assessment under your Rule 9-10, which says what you plan to do, and the Department looks at that and decides whether or not it fits as an exemption. But what happens in reality is, you know, they require a number of different components to an Assessment. It's very, very similar to an SMA application itself. You know, in other words, you have to submit an Assessment to the Department that says here is what we plan to do. Here's what the impacts will be, and then the Department decides whether or not it's exempt. Very often they take a long time to decide whether or not it's exempt, even though if you look at it, it's obvious it's a single-family residence, you know, you are talking about EXHIBIT A 9