For the purposes of this chapter, the following definitions apply unless the context clearly indicates or requires a different meaning. These definitions are intended to clarify but not replace or negate the definitions used in HRS Chapter 205A.
Agency. The department of planning and permitting.
Applicant. Includes any individual, organization, partnership, firm, association, trust, estate, limited liability company, or corporation, and any agency of the federal, State, and county government.
Artificial Light or Artificial Lighting. The light emanating from any fixed human-made device.
Beach. A coastal landform primarily composed of sand from eroded rock, coral, or shell material, or any combination thereof, established and shaped by wave action and tidal processes. A beach includes sand deposits in nearshore submerged areas, sand dunes, and upland beach deposits landward of the shoreline that provide benefits for public use and recreation, coastal ecosystems, and as a natural buffer against coastal hazards.
Coastal Dune. One of possibly several continuous or nearly continuous mounds or ridges of unconsolidated sand contiguous and parallel to the beach, situated so that it may provide some form of protection from wave run-up and be accessible to storm waves and seasonal high waves for release to the beach or offshore waters.
Coastal Hazards. Natural processes that place people, property, or the environment at risk for injury or damage, including but not limited to tsunami hurricane, wind, wave, storm surge, high tide, flooding, erosion, sea level rise, subsidence, or point and nonpoint source pollution.
Council. The city council of the City and County of Honolulu, which body shall act as the “authority” under HRS Chapter 205A.
Crops. Agricultural produce or parts of plants or trees cultivated for commercial or personal use.
Cumulative Impact. The impact on the environment that results from the incremental impact of an action or development when added to other past, present, and reasonably foreseeable future actions or developments. Cumulative impacts can result from individually minor but collectively significant actions and development taking place over a period of time.
Development. Any of the uses, activities, or operations on land, or in or under water, that occur within the special management area, as follows.
(1) Development includes but is not limited to the following:
(A) The placement or erection of any solid material, or any gaseous, liquid, solid, or thermal waste;
(B) Grading, removing, dredging, mining, or extraction of any materials;
(C) Change in the density or intensity of use of land, including but not limited to the division or subdivision of land;
(D) Change in the intensity of use, ecology, or access to water; and
(E) Construction, reconstruction, or alteration of the size of any structure, including but not limited to the construction or reconstruction of a dwelling unit:
(i) Situated on a shoreline lot or a lot that is impacted by waves, storm surges, high tide, or shoreline erosion, including additions that exceed 300 square feet:
(ii) When the dwelling unit and related garages, carports, covered lanais, and accessory structures have an aggregate floor area of 7,500 square feet or more; or
(iii) That is part of a larger development of three or more dwelling units.
(2) Development does not include the following:
(A) Construction or reconstruction of a dwelling unit that is less than 7,500 square feet of floor area, is not situated on a shoreline lot or a lot that is impacted by waves, storm surges, high tide, or shoreline erosion, and is not part of a larger development of three or more dwelling units;
(B) Structural and nonstructural improvements:
(i) To existing dwelling units, including the addition of minor accessory structures and floor area additions; provided that such additions are limited to 300 square feet if the dwelling unit is considered development under subdivision (1)(E)(i), (ii), or (iii); or
(ii) Directly related to relocating a dwelling unit farther mauka or to an area less susceptible to coastal hazards, on the same zoning lot, and activities related to the relocation of the dwelling unit;
(C) Repair or maintenance of roads and highways within existing rights-of-way;
(D) Routine maintenance dredging of existing streams, channels, or drainageways;
(E) The repair and maintenance of underground utility lines, including but not limited to water, sewer, power, or telephone lines, or minor appurtenant structures, such as pad mounted transformers and sewer pump stations;
(F) Zoning variances, except with respect to height, density, or parking, or shoreline setback variances;
(G) Repair, maintenance, or interior alterations to existing structures;
(H) Demolition or removal of structures, except for structures located on any historic site as designated in national or State registers;
(I) The use of any land for the purpose of cultivating, planting, growing, and harvesting of plants, crops, trees, and other agricultural, horticultural, or forestry products; animal husbandry; aquaculture or mariculture of plants or animals; or other agricultural purposes, subject to review by the agency in accordance with subdivision (3); provided that this exclusion does not apply to uses associated with agricultural activity dedicated to manufacturing, processing, or packaging;
(J) The transfer of title to land;
(K) The creation or termination of easements, covenants, or other rights in structures or land;
(L) The subdivision of a parcel of land into four or fewer parcels if no associated construction activities are proposed; provided that after the initial subdivision, any subsequent subdivision of the resulting parcels will be considered development for purposes of this chapter;
(M) Installation of underground utility lines and appurtenant aboveground fixtures less than 4 feet in height along existing corridors;
(N) Nonstructural improvements to existing commercial structures; or
(O) Construction, installation, maintenance, repair, or replacement of emergency management warning or signal devices and sirens.
(3) Cumulative impact. Whenever the agency finds that any use, activity, or operation that is not otherwise considered development is or may become part of a larger project, the cumulative impact of which may have a significant adverse environmental or ecological effect on the special management area, that use, activity, or operation will be defined as development for the purposes of this chapter.
(4) Significant effect. Whenever the agency finds that a use, activity, or operation that is not otherwise considered development may have a significant adverse environmental or ecological effect on the special management area, that use, activity, or operation will be defined as development for the purposes of this chapter.
Directly Illuminate. To illuminate through the use of a glowing element, lamp, globe, or reflector of an artificial light source.
Director. The director of planning and permitting.
Dwelling, Detached. Has the same meaning as defined in § 21-10.1.
Dwelling Unit. Has the same meaning as defined in § 21-10.1. For the purposes of this chapter, dwelling units include farm dwellings, ohana units, accessory dwelling units, and caretaker units.
Effects or Impacts. Changes to the human environment from the proposed action or alternatives that are reasonably foreseeable and have a reasonably close causal relationship to the proposed action or alternative, including those effects that occur at the same time and place as the proposed action or alternative and may include effects that are later in time or farther removed in distance from the proposed action or alternative.
Emergency Permit. Special management area emergency permit as defined in HRS § 205A-22.
Environmental Disclosure Document. An environmental assessment or an environmental impact statement prepared in compliance with HRS Chapter 343.
Finding of No Significant Impact. A determination based on an environmental assessment that the subject action will not have a significant effect and therefore will not require the preparation of an environmental impact statement.
Floor Area. The area of all floors of a structure excluding unroofed areas, measured from exterior faces of exterior walls. The floor area includes areas under the roof overhang or eaves, and the roof or floor above which are supported by posts, columns, partial walls, or similar structural members.
Hawaii Sea Level Rise Viewer. The interactive viewer prepared by the Pacific Islands Ocean Observing System through coordination with the Hawaii sea grant program and the State department of land and natural resources to support the Hawaii Sea Level Rise Vulnerability and Adaptation Report.
Hawaii Sea Level Rise Vulnerability and Adaptation Report. The 2017 report prepared by Tetra Tech. Inc., and the State department of land and natural resources, office of conservation and coastal lands, and adopted by the Hawaii climate change mitigation and adaptation commission.
Land. Has the same meaning as defined in HRS Chapter 205A.
Mauka. Landward or in a landward direction from the ocean.
Person. Any individual, organization, partnership, firm, association, trust, estate, public or private corporation, limited liability company, the State or any of its political subdivisions, or any other legal entity.
Restoration. A human activity that returns a natural area, including a wetland or former wetland, from a disturbed or altered condition with lesser acreage or functions to an improved condition.
Sea Level Rise Exposure Area. The mapped zone on the Hawaii Sea Level Rise Viewer, or its successor, representing the aggregate of the following coastal hazard layers: passive flooding (still water high tide flooding), annual high wave flooding (overwash during the largest wave events of the year), and coastal erosion.
Shoreline. The upper reaches of the wash of the waves, other than storm and seismic waves, at high tide during the season of the year in which the highest wash of the waves occurs, usually evidenced by the edges of vegetation growth or the upper limit of debris left by the wash of the waves.
Shoreline Lot. A zoning lot of record, any portion of which lies within the shoreline setback area, or if no certified shoreline survey exists, any portion of which lies within 130 feet inland of the natural vegetation line or debris line. A zoning lot may be determined to be a shoreline lot notwithstanding the existence of a second zoning lot between the first zoning lot and the shoreline.
Shoreline Setback Area. All of the land area between the shoreline and the shoreline setback line.
Shoreline Setback Line. The line established by Chapter 26 that runs mauka from and parallel to the certified shoreline at the horizontal plane.
Shoreline Survey. A survey map rendered by a registered land surveyor for the purpose of determining the location of the shoreline. A shoreline survey is considered a certified shoreline survey when the location of the regulatory shoreline has been determined by the State board of land and natural resources or the State surveyor in accordance with HRS § 205A-42 and the rules adopted pursuant thereto.
Significant Effect. The sum of effects on the quality of the environment, including actions that irrevocably commit a natural resource, curtail the range of beneficial uses of the environment, are contrary to the State’s environmental policies or long-term environmental goals as established by law, or adversely affect the economic welfare, social welfare, or cultural practices of the community and State.
Special Management Area or SMA. The land extending mauka from the certified shoreline, as established in this chapter, with the mauka boundary delineated on the maps established by the council and filed with the council and agency pursuant to HRS § 205A-23.
Special Wetland Area. That area that is a wetland and the area within 50 feet of a wetland.
Structure. Any portion of any building, pavement, road, pipe, flume, utility line, fence, groin, wall, or revetment; or anything constructed or erected with a fixed location at or under the ground, or requiring a fixed location on or under the ground, or attached to something having or requiring a fixed location on or below the ground.
Valuation. The estimated fair market value of the proposed development based on current costs relating to and including site preparation, materials, labor, stockpiling, grading, grubbing, and impervious surfaces.
Wetland. An area possessing three essential characteristics:
(1) Hydrophytic vegetation;
(2) Hydric soils; and
(3) Wetland hydrology;
as defined in the “Corps of Engineers Wetlands Delineation Manual,” January 1987, as amended. Wetlands include ponds and mudflats, which while possessing hydric soils and wetland hydrology, may not have the commonly required hydrophytic vegetation.
(Sec. 33-1.3, R.O. 1978 (1987 Supp. to 1983 Ed.)) (1990 Code, Ch. 25, Art. 1, § 25-1.3) (Am. Ords. 93-74, 96-58, 00-11, 10-32, 11-28, 23-4)