HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0560.019 2002-2004
To The Council Members, Hawaii County Planning Council, Oct 5, 2004
From Amy Mahealani Jones
171 Liko Lehua Street
Hilo, Hawaii 96720
Testimony regarding the proposed zoning change of the property referred to as
University Terrace
Chairman Elarionoff and Council Members:
I am not able to present my testimony in person as I am on the mainland for business. I
live adjacent to the proposed development. I am employed as a counselor at the
University of Hawaii at Hilo. Thazik you for allowing my testimony to be read.
I have come before you already to implore you to deny the rezoning of the property
known as University Terrace. I am most concerned with flooding problems already
evident in this azea. My points aze the following:
1) I wish to submit as part of my testimony the article, "Water over the Terrace"
from the September 16-3Q 2004 issue of the Hawaii Island Journal, as I wish the
statements contained within it to be a part of the council record. I did not write the
article, but I was one of the people interviewed by the journalist for the article, and I
accompanied him to view the bridges mauka and makai of the property.
Something very profound struck me as I viewed these two bridges. I already knew that a
massive amount of water flows through the property, because at times of heavy rain I can
hear the river roaz from my house. The article points out cleazly that the mauka bridge,
on the Mohouli extension, is able to accommodate 246 cubic feet of water per second
more than the makai bridge on Komohana. My retired engineer friend tells me that it is
common practice to have a greater capacity at the outflow than at the inflow. It seems
logical to me that the engineers of these bridges knew that some water sinks underground
here, which is why the lower bridge is built to handle a lesser flow. We have testified
before that water--and its management--is a huge issue in this azea of Hilo. It seems
intuitive to me that if this much water is expected to be absorbed by the soil in this 172
acres, and any part of the property is paved, the total amount absorbed will be decreased,
and the bridge on the makai side will therefore not be able to handle the runoff in the
channel there. If the property is paved, even just a part of it, the Komohana bridge should
be expected to fail again, resulting in homes and businesses downstream again being
damaged.
On the north face of the existing streambed, there is an area where palapalai ferns grow
abundantly, even as they face the sunny south. Palapalai ferns usually grow in foggy, Q
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cloud-covered Volcano. These ferns require moist soil to live. In fact, at this spot on the
property, there is a constant seep of water, allowing the palapalai to thrive here.
Also on the property is a small pond with tadpoles and small fish living in it. It has been
a dry summer, so I wonder how fish can survive here unless there is an underground
source of water to keep them alive. Surely the sun would have long ago evaporated
standing water, so it appeazs that these fish live because of another, refreshed source of
water. The water must be coming from underground, unrelated to immediate rainfall. Is
it possible a pazt of the aquifer surfaces here? And if so, just how neaz the surface is
underground water on the rest of the property?
I do not believe the developers or their engineers really know the status of water here. I
do not believe they have appropriately accounted for either surface and sub-surface water
in planning for development on the property.
2) I've been listening with interest to the reports of recent hurricane damage in the
Caribbean. Several times on the evening news I have heazd it reported that Haiti suffered
such horrible flooding damage "because it is largely deforested." The Dominican
Republic, which occupies the eastern half of the same island, has not suffered such
problems; the Dominican Republic has not hazvested a huge percentage of its trees as has
Haiti. Can we not learn from the mistakes of Haiti? Is what we want for Hilo
deforestation in watershed areas in the name of development and the possibility ofeven
more devastating floods than we've already had?
3) Mr. Tulang, when you visited my house campaigning for the primary election, we
talked about the chazette you proposed during the May meeting of the Council when
University Terrace was on the agenda. You proposed the chazette to assist in determining
how this development might be able to assist the community with its needs for housing in
away that would be acceptable to all the parties ("most palatable" as I remember it, were
words Planning Director Chris Yuen used to define the term "chazette" and its purpose).
You told me you took the lead from your fellow council members to include only the
service agencies in the first chazette. I don't believe a single person in the room that day
imagined that the community would be excluded from the chazette. In fact, the definition
of chazette, according to Mr. Yuen and Mr. Tulang, is a method for developers,
government agencies and communities to come together and discuss the concerns of all
parties and try to come to an amicable agreement. I protest the meeting of the agencies
with the developer without input from the community who is most affected, and whose
input may prove to be most valuable in realizing the problems inherent in the property.
4) In short, I believe that some azeas of land should be left undeveloped. This azea,
the 172 acres the developer calls University Terrace, lends itself in the strongest terms as
being one critically suited for non-development because of its function as a watershed,
and as a watershed how it helps to protect downtown Hilo from even more frequent
serious flooding than we have already experienced. I see this parcel as the funnel, the last
point through which water from uphill, from Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa, flow, both
surface and sub-surface. The funnel is being pushed further and further mauka with each
development, with concretized channels, and roads and housing that keep nature from
doing her job slowing the downward movement of water. Undeveloped land, as we have
it now, slows the course of water from rushing too quickly downstream, and allows rain
to be absorbed naturally into the soil and into the wonderful filtration system that is our
island. I ask you again, can we afford not to have natural flood control back up to the
management efforts of the engineers and developers? Where will the development end?
I am not saying I'm against all development; I only ask that you think reasonably and
rationally and consider carefully the long-term outcomes of your decision for the
community at large.
Please vote today to deny the request to rezone the property called by the developer
University Terrace. At the very least, delay your vote so that more comprehensive
studies of water flow, both above ground and below, may be made and the community at
lazge be given an opportunity to make informed comment on the proposal. Remember,
once this land is bulldozed, it can never be returned to a more pristine state, one that
helps protect the downtown Hilo azea. There is no reason to rush into a decision with
implications of this magnitude, and it is unconscionable to do so without adequate study.
Mahalo.
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