§205A-22  Definitions.  As used in this
part, unless the context otherwise requires:



"Applicant" means any individual,
organization, partnership, or corporation, including any utility and any agency
of government.



"Authority" means the county planning
commission, except in counties where the county planning commission is advisory
only, in which case "authority" means the county council or such body
as the council may by ordinance designate.  The authority may, as appropriate,
delegate the responsibility for administering this part.



"Department" means the planning
department in the counties of Kauai, Maui, and Hawaii, and the department of
land utilization in the city and county of Honolulu, or other appropriate
agency as designated by the county councils.



"Development" means any of the uses,
activities, or operations on land or in or under water within a special
management area that are included below:



(1)  Placement or erection of any solid material or
any gaseous, liquid, solid, or thermal waste; 



(2)  Grading, removing, dredging, mining, or
extraction of any materials;



(3)  Change in the density or intensity of use of
land, including but not limited to the division or subdivision of land;



(4)  Change in the intensity of use of water, ecology
related thereto, or of access thereto; and



(5)  Construction, reconstruction, demolition, or
alteration of the size of any structure.



"Development" does not include the
following:



(1)  Construction of a single-family residence that is
not part of a larger development;



(2)  Repair or maintenance of roads and highways
within existing rights-of-way;



(3)  Routine maintenance dredging of existing streams,
channels, and drainage ways;



(4)  Repair and maintenance of underground utility
lines, including but not limited to water, sewer, power, and telephone and
minor appurtenant structures such as pad mounted transformers and sewer pump
stations;



(5)  Zoning variances, except for height, density,
parking, and shoreline setback;



(6)  Repair, maintenance, or interior alterations to
existing structures;



(7)  Demolition or removal of structures, except those
structures located on any historic site as designated in national or state
registers;



(8)  Use of any land for the purpose of cultivating,
planting, growing, and harvesting plants, crops, trees, and other agricultural,
horticultural, or forestry products or animal husbandry, or aquaculture or
mariculture of plants or animals, or other agricultural purposes;



(9)  Transfer of title to land;



(10)  Creation or termination of easements, covenants,
or other rights in structures or land;



(11)  Subdivision of land into lots greater than twenty
acres in size;



(12)  Subdivision of a parcel of land into four or
fewer parcels when no associated construction activities are proposed; provided
that any land which is so subdivided shall not thereafter qualify for this
exception with respect to any subsequent subdivision of any of the resulting
parcels;



(13)  Installation of underground utility lines and
appurtenant aboveground fixtures less than four feet in height along existing
corridors;



(14)  Structural and nonstructural improvements to
existing single-family residences, where otherwise permissible;



(15)  Nonstructural improvements to existing commercial
structures; and



(16)  Construction, installation, maintenance, repair,
and replacement of civil defense warning or signal devices and sirens;



provided that whenever the authority finds that any
excluded use, activity, or operation may have a cumulative impact, or a
significant environmental or ecological effect on a special management area,
that use, activity, or operation shall be defined as "development"
for the purpose of this part.



"Special management area" means the
land extending inland from the shoreline as delineated on the maps filed with
the authority as of June 8, 1977, or as amended pursuant to section
205A-23.



"Special management area emergency
permit" means an action by the authority authorizing development in cases
of emergency requiring immediate action to prevent substantial physical harm to
persons or property or to allow the reconstruction of structures damaged by
natural hazards to their original form; provided that such structures were
previously found to be in compliance with requirements of the Federal Flood
Insurance Program.



"Special management area minor
permit" means an action by the authority authorizing development the
valuation of which is not in excess of $125,000 and which has no substantial
adverse environmental or ecological effect, taking into account potential
cumulative effects.



"Special management area use permit"
means an action by the authority authorizing development the valuation of which
exceeds $125,000 or which may have a substantial adverse environmental or
ecological effect, taking into account potential cumulative effects.



"Structure" includes but is not
limited to any building, road, pipe, flume, conduit, siphon, aqueduct,
telephone line, and electrical power transmission and distribution line.



"Valuation" shall be determined by
the authority and means the estimated cost to replace the structure in kind
based on current replacement costs, or in the cases of other development as
defined above, the fair market value of the development. [L 1975, c 176, pt of
§1; am L 1977, c 188, §6; am L 1979, c 200, §7; am L 1982, c 126, §1; am L
1983, c 124, §8; am L 1984, c 113, §1; am L 1991, c 129, §1; am L 1993, c 258,
§4; am L 2001, c 169, §6; am L 2004, c 76, §2]



 



Attorney General Opinions



 



  "Special management area" must be shoreline or
coastal water related land.  Att. Gen. Op. 75-18.



 



Case Notes



 



  Where no express procedure provided in Maui charter or Maui
special management area rules for appeal of Maui planning director's decision
on a minor permit application to the Maui planning commission, and commission
delegated authority to render final decision on minor permit applications to
director pursuant to this section, director's decision not to process
developer's application was a final decision equivalent to a denial of the
application and was thus appealable under §91-14(a).  88 H. 108, 962 P.2d 367.



  Where defendant's tour boat operation changed the intensity
of use of water in the Hanalei special management area, defendant's tour boat
operation constituted a "development", within the meaning of this
section, that was not exempt from the coastal zone management act or special
management area rules.  89 H. 400, 974 P.2d 40.



  Special management area minor permit issued by county to
public utility invalid and public utility required to obtain special management
area use permit for its cellular telephone tower where county board of appeals
finding that valuation of tower development did not exceed $125,000 was clearly
erroneous.  90 H. 384, 978 P.2d 822.



  Where land lease did not constitute a "development"
under this chapter, trial court erred in ruling that valuation of cellular
telephone tower development must include value of the land lease; instead,
valuation consisted of the "current replacement cost" of the
structures built.  90 H. 384, 978 P.2d 822.



  Where developer's proposed subdivision fell within the
definition of "development" found in this section, trial court
correctly determined that a special management area use permit was required. 
109 H. 384, 126 P.3d 1071.



  "Development" includes that which is planned.  4 H.
App. 304, 666 P.2d 177.