{"id":12035,"date":"2019-12-01T04:33:55","date_gmt":"2019-12-01T04:33:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.environment-hawaii.org\/?p=12035"},"modified":"2020-07-02T00:48:07","modified_gmt":"2020-07-02T00:48:07","slug":"city-climate-change-commission-mulls-changes-to-shoreline-setback-ordinance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/?p=12035","title":{"rendered":"City Climate Change Commission Mulls Changes to Shoreline Setback Ordinance"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sunset Beach homeowners Gary and Cynthia Stanley may have bought some time to keep their unauthorized sandbag burrito pile in place through the winter by requesting a contested case hearing from the Board of Land and Natural Resources (see Board Talk<\/a>), but the long-term future of their home and others in the area is dubious, at best. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hawai\u2018i <\/em>magazine last month reported\non one 40-year Sunset Beach resident\nwho has accepted that he may have to\nabandon his home as the shoreline erodes\never closer.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s unlikely seawalls or other type of hardening will be a viable or even legal solution. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Board of Land and Natural Resources has a policy against shoreline hardening within the Conservation District. The City & County of Honolulu
does allow structures, including seawalls, to be built much closer to the shore than Kaua\u2018i or Maui counties, but that may soon change. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under the city\u2019s shoreline setback\nordinance, structures must generally be\nbuilt no closer than 40 feet inland from\na certified shoreline. For shallow lots,\nthe shoreline setback line can be as close\nas 20 feet from the shoreline to allow a\nminimum depth of buildable area of 30\nfeet.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With sea level expected to rise significantly in the coming decades as a result of climate change, the city Department of Planning and Permitting (DPP) is in the process of amending those standards, and Mayor Kirk Caldwell has sought guidance from the Honolulu Climate Change Commission. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

DPP planner Katia Balassiano said earlier this year that her department is looking to Kaua\u2018i\u2019s setback ordinance as a model. Kaua\u2018i\u2019s minimum setback distance is 60 feet from the certified shoreline plus 70 times the historical annual erosion rate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At its November 18 meeting, the commission discussed several other possible amendments. In addition to simply acknowledging the science of climate change and sea level rise, the setback ordinance should also be tailored to the specific physical and\/or ecological characteristics of an area and not necessarily tied to an individual parcel, commissioners suggested. Commissioner Chip Fletcher argued for the closure of a \u201cloophole\u201d in the ordinance regarding setback variances that has allowed homeowners to build seawalls too close to the shore. The ordinance allows for a \u201chardship variance,\u201d so long as the planning director determines that the applicant\u2019s proposal is \u201ca reasonable use of the land.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe determination of the reasonableness of the use of land should properly consider factors such as shoreline conditions, erosion, surf and flood conditions and the geography of the lot,\u201d the ordinance states. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI would posit there is evidence all around us it\u2019s been violated,\u201d Fletcher said.\nHe argued that under the current laws,\nstate and county agencies have granted\npermits for shoreline hardening that has\nresulted in significant erosion.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShoreline hardening goes against objectives of the [shoreline setback] chapter. It destroys the beach. It preserves the land associated with a single landowner and ignores the public trust. … You are sacrificing the good of all for the good of a parcel owner,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne may ask, is it a \u2018reasonable use of\nthe land\u2019 during a time of sea level rise to\ndevelop it, to develop a parcel in a location\nwhere you know the parcel is not going to\noutlast the threats of sea level rise? … Is it\nreasonable to develop a high-risk zone?\u201d\nhe continued.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The matter of whether to allow for the repair and maintenance of eroding seawalls is particularly difficult, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHow are we going to recover beaches if we are perpetually repairing seawalls? How are we not going to repair seawalls without an exit strategy for the homeowner?\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In light of a recent controversy over the fact that the U.S. military plans to install a large seawall to protect a training area in \u2018Ewa Beach \u2014 without any city or state permits \u2014 commissioner Rosie Alegado asked how much coastal land the military controls and if there are any other entities that are exempt from shoreline setback policies.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt would be interesting for me to know if they are interested in dialoging with what\nwe\u2019re proposing,\u201d she said.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At its December 17 meeting, the commission may take action on a white paper, prepared by members Fletcher and chair Makena Coffman, that provides recommendations on changes to the city\u2019s shoreline setback ordinance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014Teresa Dawson <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sunset Beach homeowners Gary and Cynthia Stanley may have bought some time to keep their unauthorized sandbag burrito pile in place through the winter by requesting a contested case hearing from the Board of Land and Natural Resources (see Board … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11412,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,461],"tags":[3],"class_list":["post-12035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-climate-change","category-december-2019","tag-teresa-dawson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12035\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}