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Home My WebLink AboutCOM 0176.020 2006-2008 Page 1 of 1 Murashige, Laura From: Brenda Ford [bford@co.hawaii.hi.us] Sent: Monday, March 19, 2007 3:23 PM To: counciltestimony@co.hawaii.hi.us Subject: Public Testimony -Public Works and Intergovernmental Relations Committee on Bill 51(draft 2) from Thomas Langenstein, Holualoa Attachments: March 202007 testimony (3).doc; Appendix-Public Works (3).doc Thank you - Debralee r.,; r.'. ^N ~ ~ =a CL 1 r~ ~?7 CORIT, N Raf• To• ~ e~e~tw+° Ref, Uate MAR 2 0 2007 3/19/2007 Councilperson Brenda Ford-Chair Hawaii County Public Works and Intergovernmental Relations Committee 25 Aupuni St. Hilo, Hawaii 96720 Re: Testimony to March 20, 2007 Committee hearing on Flood Drainage Concerns Aloha Chair Ford and County Council members: Thank you for accepting this testimony. I apologize for being unable to speak personally to this committee today. My job and other obligations prevent me from being there. Please find the appendix included with this testimony, which outlines some of my past history with flood drainage issues in the Holualoa area, and speaks to some of the issues currently presented. As can be evidenced by some of the other testimony you are receiving today, problems identified in my June 1, 2006 open letter to West Hawaii Today are continuing. Please note that there has not been a dramatic rainfall event that has precipitated the complaints you are hearing today, just normal rainfall events that occur in Hawaii's many micro climates. If we were to have a real 25, 50, 100 year storm, the complaints that you are hearing and the impact to the community would be far more devastating. The problems presented are not specific to one PUD application or property developer, but to the broader issue of Department of Planning and Public Works approving permits, strings of zoning variances (PUDs) and development without adequate infrastructure. In this case this is represented by no requested regional flood study, no comprehensive flood planning, inadequate grubbing and grading enforcement, and adequate fines and recourse against people who disregard the impacts of their actions on those who live around them. This has to stop or there will be great expense in litigation for County in abrogating its mandated responsibility in protecting the public. I appreciate recent actions that the Council has taken to temporarily step back from rezoning until the Community Development Plans can be implemented. This is being answered outside your purview by the Planning department and the developer community, however, by increased numbers of PUD applications approved by the Planning Director and the Planning Department. I ask that the County Council take action to stop Dept. of Planning PUD application approvals in flood zones without the necessary regional flood studies to protect the public. I also ask that the Council initiate rules which also prevent grubbing and grading permits in flood zones until such flood studies can be completed. In order for such rules to have any real impact, it is necessary to have enforcement able to impound bulldozing equipment found operating with or without the operator present at the time of discovery, in these flood zones until such time as an investigation determines whether it is in compliance with grubbing and grading ordinances. The cat and mouse games currently being played by developers and their agents (i.e. illicit bulldozer operators) must stop. Thank you. Sincerely, Thomas Langenstein, Holualoa Appendix March 20, 2007 testimony Hawaii Public Works Committee West Hawaii Today -Viewpoint article Lune 1, 2006 Open letter to Dept. of Planning Aloha, We received a notice of application for a Planned Unit Development of 131.663 acres of land known as "Coffee grounds II" one-mile North of Holualoa town. The notice states that they are developing an agricultural subdivision mauka of Mamalahoa Hwy. 40 lots are proposed. Eighteen are already zoned Agriculture lA and the rest into Agriculture SA. Another subdivision, Coffee Grounds 1, is also being developed. The property is being considered for a variance from its zoning usage without public hearing. The County has not facilitated the flood studies that the community requested almost ten years ago. The developer can't know how to accurately identify and mitigate flood prob?ems already occurring in this area. The planning process only holds the developer responsible to not create any more water runoff in project than is existent. The larger question remains: is this area safe to be used as an Ag.l A usage (read residential)? What are the impacts to this community? Over ten yeazs ago, a developer notified the public of his plan for a new subdivision above and North of Holualoa town known as Waiono Meadows. This property also has a history of drainage flooding. The Holualoa/Horseshoe Bend and Waiaha Streams are well known to residents and hydrologists familiar with the area. When news of the development circulated around this rural community, uproar occurred with concerns voiced about changing the flood plain creating great risk to residents. The development was stopped out of that concern. Everything got quiet for about five years and then bulldozing began occurring mauka. Bulldozers could be heard on weekends, holidays, even late into the evenings. Out of concern, several community volunteers formed the Kona Community Action Group to Address Drainage Flooding. We had numerous community meetings held at the Imin Center. Three of these meetings included members of the community and at individual meetings, various important people such as then Civil Defense Administrator Harry Kim, Kona Soil and Water District Board members, a representative from the Federal Natural Resources Conservation Service (MRCS), County Public Works, County Planning Department, Army Corps of Engineers, County Council members and others attended. At some of those meetings over one hundred people were in attendance. The organizers were told by many including Mr. Harry Kim what an important and needed job we were doing in order to save lives and prevent property destruction. The issues presented at those meetings addressed our understanding of what needed to happen in this area in order to identify and mitigate drainage flooding before any further growth. First on the list was to ask the County for a comprehensive flood study of the azeas of Keopu/Heinaole, Waiaha, Holualoa/Horseshoe Bend and Kawnalumalu streams. It is acknowledged by the General Plan that the flood maps for this area used by the County, Kona Soil and Water District, NRCS, etc. are now outdated and largely inaccurate. Flood engineering of individual properties in the area without this updated larger view, will not protect the public at large from changes that have occurred in hydrology pattems. We were told the largest impediment to flood studies was money. The flood action sub committee of me, Tomoi Nimori, and Ron and Sue Aronson, aided by NRCS agent Steve Skipper, spent many hours with members of the community mapping flood patterns and writing letters to State and Federal legislators requesting FEMA Project Impact funds. Not long after this effort we were pleased to be informed that $500,000 (a small amount) in Project Impact funds was being directed to the island of Hawaii. The steering committee in Hilo, directed the much-needed flood mapping money to the Puna district. We were told the County had no money for a flood study in Kona. Shortly thereafter I resigned my position as chair of the flood action group and it apparently died of attrition. The County Administration has never requested money as solicited by the community to do flood studies for these mentioned areas as would be consistent with both the old and the new general plans. I have videotaped flood drainage during a downpour onto Mamalahoa Hwy. makai of the North end of the property called "Coffee Grounds 2". The video shows drainage water coming down and shooting over and through a rock wall and through a neighbor's greenhouse and down two other neighbor's driveways and into one's garage. After I sent the videotape and letter County Public Works, three new drywells along the mauka side of the road and "improvements" were made to a culvert makai of our property were implemented. The "improved" culvert now no longer collects water from the roadway. During heavy rains water flows across the entrance to our driveway. County Public Works officials have acknowledged that dry wells are a minimal attempt at mitigation for flood problems and can't be expected to be effective for even a 25-year sustained flooding event. We were never contacted to give input to mitigation measures mentioned above. With other issues of substandard roads such as Mamalahoa, no shoulders, curbs or walkways anywhere near Holualoa, no public parks, limited school facilities, and other infrastructure unplanned one would ask what definition of the word "planning" the County is using when increasing density. The "Kainaliu Crawl" has made Mamalahoa much more utilized as an alternative route. How much more traffic can this road take without improvements? As this is my only available public venue to speak to this, is there a plan to incorporate flooding identification and mitigation for this region, i.e. community planning? Is the County planning to re-designate Ag 1 A zoning into a rural zoning? Do our County officials know that Ag lA or rural zoned property is not able to apply for Federal assistance programs to really help mitigate flooding? Thank you, Tom Langenstein-Holualoa