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.

“Department” means the planning department of the counties of Kauai, Maui, and Hawaii and the department of planning and permitting of the city and county of Honolulu, or other appropriate agency as designated by the county councils.

“Development” :

(1) Means any of the uses, activities, or operations on land or in or under water within a special management area that are included below:

Terms Used In Hawaii Revised Statutes 205A-22

  • Agency: means any agency, board, commission, department, or officer of a county government or the state government, including the authority as defined in part II. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 205A-1
  • 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. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 205A-1
  • Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
  • county: includes the city and county of Honolulu. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 1-22
  • Department: means the planning department of the counties of Kauai, Maui, and Hawaii and the department of planning and permitting of the city and county of Honolulu, or other appropriate agency as designated by the county councils. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 205A-22
  • Fair market value: The price at which an asset would change hands in a transaction between a willing, informed buyer and a willing, informed seller.
  • Land: means the earth, water, and air above, below, or on the surface. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 205A-1
  • Partnership: A voluntary contract between two or more persons to pool some or all of their assets into a business, with the agreement that there will be a proportional sharing of profits and losses.
  • Shoreline: means 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 edge of vegetation growth, or the upper limit of debris left by the wash of the waves. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 205A-1
  • 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 § 205A-23. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 205A-22
  • Structure: includes but is not limited to any building, road, pipe, flume, conduit, siphon, aqueduct, telephone line, and electrical power transmission and distribution line. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 205A-22
(A) 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 of water, ecology related thereto, or of access thereto; and
(E) Construction, reconstruction, or alteration of the size of any structure; and
(2)Does not include the following:

(A) Construction or reconstruction of a single-family residence that is less than seven thousand five hundred square feet of floor area; is not situated on a shoreline parcel or a parcel that is impacted by waves, storm surges, high tide, or shoreline erosion; and is not part of a larger development;
(B) Repair or maintenance of roads and highways within existing rights-of-way;
(C) Routine maintenance dredging of existing streams, channels, and drainage ways;
(D) 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;
(E) Zoning variances, except for height, density, parking, and shoreline setback;
(F) Repair, maintenance, or interior alterations to existing structures;
(G) Demolition or removal of structures, except those structures located on any historic site as designated in national or state registers;
(H) 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, including all traditional fishpond and traditional agricultural practices;
(I) Transfer of title to land;
(J) Creation or termination of easements, covenants, or other rights in structures or land;
(K) Subdivision of land into lots greater than twenty acres in size;
(L) Subdivision of a parcel of land into four or fewer parcels when no associated construction activities are proposed; provided that any land that is so subdivided shall not thereafter qualify for this exception with respect to any subsequent subdivision of any of the resulting parcels;
(M) Installation of underground utility lines and appurtenant aboveground fixtures less than four feet in height along existing corridors;
(N) Structural and nonstructural improvements to existing single-family residences, where otherwise permissible;
(O) Nonstructural improvements to existing commercial or noncommercial structures;
(P) Construction, installation, maintenance, repair, and replacement of emergency management warning or signal devices and sirens;
(Q) Installation, maintenance, repair, and replacement of public pedestrian and bicycle facilities, including sidewalks, paths, bikeways, crosswalks, stairs, ramps, traffic control barriers, signs, signals, and associated improvements;
(R) Trash removal or invasive vegetation removal or control, including incidental ground disturbance, excluding the use of herbicides;
(S) Installation of fencing, including associated improvements and incidental structures, for invasive species control or preservation of native habitats on conservation land;
(T) Installation, maintenance, repair, and replacement of lighting, fixtures, and equipment to establish compliance with current standards at existing public facilities;
(U) Installation, maintenance, repair, and replacement of security measures, including fencing, to existing public facilities; and
(V) Hawaiian traditional and customary practices, including work conducted by traditional means near, in, or related to loko i’a, traditional Hawaiian fishponds;

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 § 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 those structures were previously found to be in compliance with requirements of the National 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 $500,000 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 $500,000 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.