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Seawall Standstill: <\/b>Last November and December, prominent Honolulu architect Robert Iopa took down most of a seawall he had built earlier in 2016 on land fronting his property in the Keaukaha neighborhood of Hilo. He had been required to do so by the state Department of Land and Natural Resources\u2019 Office of Conservation and Coastal Lands.<\/p>\n
But the Hawai`i County Planning Department wanted to have not just the wall removed, but the area restored, to the extent possible, to its pre-existing conditions. In addition, it required Iopa to pay $2,500 in fines for violations of the county\u2019s planning shoreline setback and special management area regulations. It set a deadline of April 7 for completion of the work.<\/p>\n
On April 4, Iopa asked that the deadline be extended to May 22. That deadline passed without any visible change in the site.<\/p>\n
According to Bethany Morrison, the planner overseeing Iopa\u2019s compliance with terms set by the county to satisfy the violations, Iopa and the Planning Department are still working out the restoration plan and Iopa has requested another time extension.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s submitted various documents, and we\u2019ve granted another time extension,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re going back and forth about what should be included in the plan. \u2026 We need additional information. We\u2019re waiting to know the scope of work.\u201d<\/p>\n
TMT Update: <\/b>As the May 30 deadline for submittal of proposed findings of fact, conclusions of law, and decision and order approached in the contested case hearing over the Conservation District permit for the Thirty Meter Telescope, the volume of filings from petitioners protesting that deadline increased.<\/p>\n
No fewer than 12 of the parties objecting to construction of the TMT near the summit of Mauna Kea filed objections to the deadline set by hearing officer Riki May Amano. The TMT and the University of Hawai`i \u2013 the applicant in this case \u2013 filed eight objections to the petitioners\u2019 objections.<\/p>\n
On May 23, Amano, in Minute Order 50, dispensed with them all, at times quoting the language found in some of the petitioners\u2019 filings, such as: \u201cThere has been no \u2018opportunity to inspect the transcripts or have any consultation on the processes of the transcripts if there should be any eras?\u2019 [sic] and \u2018I reserved the right to make corrections as needed to the transcript and reserve time to make; those corrections to all 44 volumes and Volumes i-vii as deem.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Amano recited the numerous occasions, going back to October, when she had admonished the petitioners of the need to begin work on their proposed findings of fact. \u201cIf the parties are unprepared to meet the deadlines set forth, it is not because they were not warned,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo some extent, proffered arguments appear to be stream of consciousness comments; i.e., challenges to the exhibits \u2018creates the potential for a due process challenge to the outcome of the contested case.\u2019 \u2026 \u2018While due process violations in this proceeding are so frequent that they have become expected, this final attack by the Hearing Officer on the ability of the Protector Interveners to participate and make their case is so blatant that a motion to recuse would be warranted, if it were not for the fact that the Hearing Officer will simply ignore such a motion.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cAll in all, movants\u2019 asserted grounds are insufficient reasons to reconsider Minute Order No. 43. The eleven motions seeking to have Minute Order No. 43 \u2026 reconsidered \u2026 are DENIED.\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n
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Kaua`i Springs Order: The Public Utilities Commission has rejected the request from a Kaua`i water bottler that it determine the bottler’s source of water is exempt from requirements that apply to water utilities. The May 22 order notes that the … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9278,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[419],"tags":[7],"class_list":["post-9738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-june-2017","tag-patricia-tummons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9738","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=9738"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9738\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}