The following
two segments of text are from the Hawaii Department of Business, Economic
Development & Tourism's Website. It is not without irony they summarize
the purpose and goals of what should be a powerful tool for environmentalists
wishing to stem the tide of uncontrolled commercial growth in Hawaii.
The
Hawaii Coastal Zone Management Program
Enacted as Chapter 205A, HRS, the Hawaii Coastal Zone Management (CZM)
Program was promulgated in 1977 in response to the Federal Coastal Zone
Management Act of 1972. The CZM area encompasses the entire state including
all marine waters seaward to the extent of the state's police power
and management authority, including the 12-mile U.S. territorial sea
and all archipelagic waters. The program is built upon ten policy areas:
Recreational
Resources
To provide coastal recreational opportunities accessible to the public
and protect coastal resources uniquely suited for recreational activities
that cannot be provided elsewhere.
Historic Resources
To protect, preserve, and where desirable, restore those natural and
manmade historic and prehistoric resources in the coastal zone management
area that are significant in Hawaiian and American history and culture.
Scenic and Open Space Resources
To protect, preserve, and where desirable, restore or improve the quality
of coastal scenic and open space resources.
Coastal Ecosystems
To protect valuable coastal ecosystems, including reefs, from disruption
and minimize adverse impacts on all coastal ecosystems.
Economic Uses
To provide public or private facilities and improvements important to
the state's economy in suitable locations; and ensure that coastal dependent
development such as harbors and ports, energy facilities, and visitor
facilities, are located, designed, and constructed to minimize adverse
impacts in the coastal zone area.
Coastal Hazards
To reduce hazard to life and property from tsunami, storm waves, stream
flooding, erosion, subsidence, and pollution.
Managing Development
To improve the development review process, communication, and public
participation in the management of coastal resources and hazards.
Public Participation
To stimulate public awareness, education, and participation in coastal
management; and maintain a public advisory body to identify coastal
management problems and provide policy advice and assistance to the
CZM program.
Beach Protection
To protect beaches for public use and recreation; locate new structures
inland from the shoreline setback to conserve open space and to minimize
loss of improvements due to erosion.
Marine Resources
To implement the state's ocean resources management plan.
Other key areas of the CZM program include: a permit system to control
development within a Special Management Area (SMA)
managed by the Counties and the Office of Planning; a Shoreline Setback
Area which serves as a buffer against coastal hazards and erosion, and
protects view-planes; and the Marine and Coastal Affairs. Finally, a
Federal Consistency provision requires that federal activities, permits
and financial assistance be consistent with the Hawaii CZM program.
Special
Management Area (SMA)
The Special Management
Area (SMA) and Shoreline Setback Area are designated for more intensive
management by the four counties. The SMA originally encompassed all
lands extending not less than 100 yards inland from the shoreline. The
shoreline is defined as the upper reaches of the wash of the waves (other
than storm or seismic waves) at high tide during the season of the year
in which the highest wash of the waves occurs. The shoreline is usually
evidenced by vegetation growth, or the upper limit of debris left by
the wash of waves.
In some areas, the SMA's extend several miles inland to cover areas
in which coastal resources are likely to be directly affected by development
activities, such as Kawainui Marsh on Oahu and Waipio Valley on the
Big Island. The Counties may amend their boundaries to achieve the CZM
objectives and policies. Amendments removing areas from an SMA are subject
to state review for compliance with the coastal law.
No development can occur in the SMA unless the appropriate county (or
for developments in the Community Development Districts, the Office
of Planning) first issues a permit. Development is defined to include
most uses, activities and operations on land and in the water. For more
information, please consult with the county planning departments on
Kauai, Maui, Hawaii, and the Department of Land Utilization on Oahu.
On
Kauai The SMA is Turned Upside Down
It has become
the rule throughout the state of Hawaii that the county planning commissions
ignore the guidelines and restrictions of the SMA and permit abominable
projects that disfigure the shoreline, decrease public access and damage
the environment.The Kauai Planning Commission routinely ignores the
intent of the CZM and SMA regulations.
EXAMPLE
1) Kauai Loses in Court
Case No. 7694. Supreme
Court of Hawai'i. Dec. 6, 1982.
PLANNING COMMISSION
and Planning Department of the County of Kauai Defendant
The Syllabus by the Court states that
• The declared
policy of the Coastal Zone Management Act, HRS Chapter 205A, is to
preserve, protect, and where possible, to restore the natural resources
of the coastal zone of Hawaii.
• The implementation of the policy of the Coastal Zone Management
Act has been delegated in large part to the counties. State
primacy nevertheless has been retained as HRS §§ 205A-4
and 205A-28make clear.
• The legislature has sought to maintain the integrity of its
declared policy by providing guidelines in HRS § 205A-26 to be
followed by the counties in reviewing applications for special management
area use permits.
• Where a county agency that has been delegated authority to
pass on applications for special management area use permits exercises
such authority inconsistently with the guidelines and restraints delineated
in HRS § 205A- 26, the grant of the permit cannot stand.
EXAMPLE 2) Traffic Meltdown in Kapaa
Another example
is the recent approval to permit construction in Kapaa of nearly 300
vacation timeshare units as well as wedding chapel facilities on open
acreage along the shore opposite Kauai Shopping Village (where Papaya's
Health Food Store is located. This project will have immediate negative
affects on the site, Kapaa and the whole island of Kauai. It is a mindless
development and will be the cause of a continuing meltdown at the worst
traffic chokehold on the island.
A
Weapon on Our Side
Readers are encouraged
to use the SMA regulations to beat back negative development proposals.
Let's hold the Kauai County Planning Commissioners feet to the fire
and force them to follow CZM and SMA guidelines set up by the state.
The following material is from the Maui County Planning Commission Regulations
for Permits in the SMA. These regulations conform to the intent of the
State SMA intentions (but are ignored and routinely subverted on Maui
for the sake of speculative reale state profits). Readers can use the
points in these regulations to test whether a permit should be issued
on SMA land. We will publish Kauai County's interpretation of the law
when we can get a copy.
Applicable
Regulations: Special Management Area Use Permit
Standards
for reviewing a special mangagement area (SMA) application are found
under HRS 205A-26 and 12-202-10 and 12-202-11 of Chapter 202, Special
Mangement Area (SMA) Rules of the Maui Planning Commission.
In evaluating
an action the following factors, but not limited to same, may constitute
a significant adverse effect on the environment:
A. Involves an irrevocable commitment to loss or destruction of
any natural or cultural resources;
B. Significantly
curtails the range of beneficial uses of the environment;
C. Conflicts with the Couty's or the State's long-term enviromental
policies or goals;
D. Substantially affects the economic or social welfare and activities
of the community, County or State;
E. Involves substantial secondary impacts, such as population changes
and increased effects on public facilities, streets, drainage, sewage,
and water systems, and pedestrian walkways;
F. In itself has no significant adverse effect but cumulatively
has considerable effect upon the environment or involves a commitment
ofr larger actions;
G. Substantially affects a rare, threatened, or endangered species
of animal or plant, or its habitat;
H. Is contrary to the state plan, county's general plan, appropriate
community plans, zoning and subdivision ordinances;
I. Detrimentally affects air or water quality or ambient noise levels;
J. Affects an environmentally sensitive area, such as flood plain,
shoreline, tsunami zone, erosion-prone area, geologically hazardous
land, estuary, fresh waters or coastal waters;
K. Substantially alters natural land forms and existing public views
to and along the shoreline; or
L. Is contrary to the objectives and policies of chapter 205A, HRS.
The following
guidelines shall be used by the Authority in reviewing developments
within the special management area:
1. All development in the SMA shall be subject to reasonable terms
and conditions set forth by the authority to ensure:
A. Adequate access, by dedication or other means, to publicly owned
or used beaches, recreation areas, and natural reserves is provided
to the extent consistent with sound conservation principles;
B. Adequate and properly located public recreation areas and wildlife
preserves are reserved;
C. Provisions are made for solid and liquid waste treatment, dispositon,
and management which will minimize adverse effects upon special
management area resouces; and
D. Alterations to existing land forms and vegetation, except crops,
and construction of structures shall cause minmum adverse effect
to water resources and scenic and reacreational amenities and minumum
danger of floods, wind damage, storm surge, landslides, erosion,
siltation, or failure in the event of earthquake.
2. No development
shall be approved unless the Authority has first found that:
A. The development will not have any substantial adverse environmental
or ecological effect, except as such adverse effect is minimized
to the extent practicable and clearly outweighed by public health,
safety, or compelling public interest. Such adverse effects shall
include, but not be limited to, the potential cumulative impact
of individual developments, each one of which taken in itself might
not have a substantial adverse effect, and the elimination of planning
options;
B. The development is consisten with the objectives, plicies, and
special mangement area guidelines of this chapter and any guidelines
enacted by the legislature; and
C. That the development is consistent with the county general plan
and zoning. Such a finding of consistency does not preclude concurrent
processing when a general plan or zoning amendment may also be required.
3. The Authority
shall seek to minimize, where reasonable:
A. Dredging
filling or otherwise altering any bay, estuary, salt marsh, river
mouth, slough, or lagoon;
B. Any development which would reduce the size of any beach or other
area usable for public reacreation;
C. Any development which would reduce or impose restrictions upon
public access to tidal and submerged lands, beaches, portions of
rivers and streams within the special management areas and the mean
high tide line where there is no beach;
D. Any development which would substantially interfere with or detract
from the line of sight twoard the sea from the state highway nearest
the coast; and
E. Any development which would adversely affect water quality, existing
areas of open water free of viible structures, existing and potential
fisheries and fishing grounds, wildlife habitats, or potential or
existing agricultural uses of land.
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