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Home My WebLink AboutCOM 1025.001 2014-2016From the office of - Council Member District 4 — Puna Makai Office: (808) 965-2712 Fax: (808) 965-2707 Email: gilagan@hawaiicoitnty.gov GREGGOR ILAGAN 25 Aupuni Street, Hilo, Hawaii 96720 WD September 29, 2016 MEMORANDUM To: Dru Mamo Kanuha, Chair And Members of the Hawaii County Council From: Greggor Ragan Council Member Re: Bill No. 234; An Ordinance Amending Chapter 14, Article 14, Division 3, Section 14-86 of the Hawaii County Code 1983 (2005 Edition, as Amended) Relating to Street Names. Attached for informational purposes is a review of the legislative history of Section 14-86 of the County Code. A brief summary of the important points follows: Prior to passage of the bill that established this section of the code in 2004, department policy guided the naming of streets. That policy apparently required only no duplication of street names within the same judicial district, as the first draft of the bill shows. During final reading of this bill, Section 14-86(a) was amended to add the words "or zip code zones" because the Enhanced 911 (E911) relied on zip code zones to locate a caller. Also attached are maps indicating the locations of zip code zones and judicial districts for Hawaii Island. Please distribute this for the discussion on Bill No. 234, scheduled for October 5, 2016. GUps Att. ®oR+•� i COMM. R.af. i o: (oil ;. Dota Hawai 'i County Is an Equal Opportunity Provider And Employer Legislative History of Section 14-86(a), Hawaii County Code The current language in the code arises from a bill introduced in the 2002-2004 Council term by request of the Administration, the culmination of a two-year effort to address issues relating to street addresses and names.I Bill No. 275-04, as introduced to the Council, included the following statement in Section 1: "Purpose and Findings. The County Council finds that a uniform system of assigning and displaying addresses is essential for efficient location by emergency responders." Section 2 of Bill No. 275-04 proposed language for Section 14-86 of the Code: "Street names adopted after the effective date of this ordinance shall meet the following criteria: a) No Duplication. To eliminate potential confusion, duplication of street names within the same judicial district shall not be permitted. Streets with the same name but different street type designations shall be considered duplicate street names."2 Bill 275 was referred to the Public Works and Intergovernmental Relations Committee. During that discussion, Deputy Planning Director Roy Takemoto told Council Members that Article 3, regarding street names, was established "just to codify existing procedures" and that "there are department policies, but nothing has been enacted by ordinance or rules."3 The legislative record is silent on the purpose of including judicial districts as a street name criterion. One day prior to final reading, Deputy Planning Director Roy Takemoto emailed the Council: "If not too late to make changes to Bill 275, there is one minor amendment we'd like to request: Section 14-86. Street Name Criteria Street names [ ] shall meet the following criteria: a) No Duplication. To eliminate potential confusion, duplication of street names within the same judicial district or zip code zones shall not be permitted ... Reason: In the course of working on the GIS database system for the streets and addresses, it came to our attention that the Verizon E911 addressing system relies on zip code zones. The amendment would make our addressing system more consistent with the E911 system. There may be a need to rename streets if there is duplication or other significant inconsistency with the street naming criteria. Section 14-85 provides authority for the director or council to initiate such renaming, but the clause `adopted after the 'Transmittal Comm. 633 (2002-2004) Z Bill 275, Draft 1 3 Minutes, PWIRC, 6-1-04, P. 43 effective date of this ordinance' adds confusion whether the criteria applies to existing streets."4 During the Council discussion, CM Joe Reynolds said he understood the proposed amendment to mean that all street names that exist now may not be duplicates if in the same judicial district or zip code. Takemoto agreed. Reynolds asked Takemoto who would be responsible to change the duplicates and Takemoto replied they are in the process of developing a "Street Centerline Database" to check for duplicates, and that their goal would be not to grandfather in any existing duplicates. CM Curtis Tyler asked how many duplicate streets existed in the county and said there couldn't be more than a handful. Takemoto agreed and said they were in the process of determining how many there are. Tyler described the scenario of a short street that impacts only 10 residents, versus another street that impacts 100 residents. He asked Takemoto if they would minimize the impact to the residents and Takemoto replied in the affirmative. Takemoto said their primary consideration would be to weigh the public safety in terms of efficiency of the E911 system, versus an inconvenience to the residents.5 Bill 275, as amended to Draft 2, was approved and signed into law as Ordinance No. 04-82. 4 Comm. 633.7 (2002-2004) 5 Minutes, Council, 7-8-04, Pp. 9-10. ZIP CODE TABULATION AREAS HAWAII COUNTY W4� NORTH KOHALA SOUTH HAMAKUA KOHALA. Jt NORTH L0— - SOUTH HTO N 0 R TH kONA Kona4" PUNA SOUTH K4 KONEi] A Judicial Districts Island of Hawaii 10 0 10 20 Miles