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hearings officer, we went to court in the meantime, came back to the hearings officer – I think
<br />Jeff was around, maybe his, one of his first big petitions at the time when he and I both were
<br />younger. And, so, it was a very long and involved process. We did work out all of the issues
<br />with the community, and so we were able to get the SMA Permit 05-005 issued and there was no
<br />appeal. Since that time the petitioner has been actively working to try to get the Block D portion
<br />of the project, which is the left corner, the makai north corner of the project area, developed.
<br />The big hang-up, as Maija was indicating, was the County’s flood study. In this area they’ve got
<br />the Waiaha flow coming down mauka-makai, they’ve got the Waiaha split flow on the south side
<br />of the project, so what will be required is both on the north side and on the south side the
<br />developer will have to process with FEMA their Letter of Map Revision reflecting drainage
<br />improvements to handle the flow. That process was not finalized by the County and FEMA until
<br />2017. But, I think a couple years before that, we had been working with the County Department
<br />of Public Works to try to get our drainage report approved. We spent the last probably year or so
<br />prior to this, trying to get Final Plan Approval for the first phase of Block D and construct it
<br />within the timeframe, but we were unable to do that because part of the, one of the requirements
<br />for the Plan Approval application is to submit a drainage report, and we couldn’t get the Public
<br />Works Department to allow us to move forward on the drainage report because of the FEMA
<br />issues. So long story short, we then decided to hold off on the FEMA processing until such time
<br />as we could come back to solidify the project entitlements, get the time extension, and then we
<br />could move forward with the FEMA permitting. We are anticipating that both the north side and
<br />the south side of the project will be covered by one drainage report. There are, maybe tactically
<br />we might split it up into two, but at the present time that’s something that we are still
<br />considering. The graphics that you saw earlier that show the flood plains onto the project, those
<br />are all preliminary maps to the best of our ability at this time. There may be some slight changes
<br />but not significantly from what you’ve seen before.
<br />
<br />We’ve received the copy of the Hawai‘i Regional Council of Carpenters letter today, which
<br />raises, which recommends that the Commission deny the request for the ten-year time extension,
<br />raising issues that the project doesn’t provide measures to address potential impacts on
<br />endangered species. The, and this, this comment from the Carpenters came up because of their
<br />review of the Fish and Wildlife Service letters that came out of the Final Environmental
<br />Assessment for the County’s Ali‘i Drive culvert replacement, which is located just at the north
<br />makai corner off-site of the property that would go underneath the Ali‘i Drive, and so, you know,
<br />in response basically we’ve conducted for this project a Final Environmental Assessment also,
<br />and I’ll read to you portions from the March 2009 Final Environmental Assessment Section 3.1.4
<br />on Flora, Fauna and Ecosystems. Basically, in summary it says that a botanical and fauna study
<br />was conducted by Patrick Hart, Dr. Patrick Hart, and Dr. Ron Terry in March of 2005, and they
<br />concluded that there’s no threatened or endangered plant species present or are expected to be
<br />present on the project site. They also concluded that with respect to the fauna that although the
<br />endangered Hawaiian Hawk and Hawaiian Hoary Bat could be, and certain native seabirds,
<br />could fly over the site, they didn’t see any during their observation, and according to a recent,
<br />then-recent, habitat assessment of a similar area in Kailua-Kona by Reggie David in 2005, site
<br />clearing was unlikely to impact this species. The study and the Final EA for this project
<br />concluded that, “In order to frame impacts to flora and fauna, it is important to remember that the
<br />project site is land historically used for ranching now zoned for multi-family and commercial
<br />use, which is dominated by introduced plant species. From this perspective, the development
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<br />EXHIBIT A
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