Definitions

Unless specifically defined below, words or phrases used in this chapter shall be interpreted so as to give them the meaning they have in common usage and to give this chapter its most reasonable application. “Accessory use” means a use which is incidental and subordinate to the principal use of the parcel of land on which it is located. “Appeal” means a request for a review of the floodplain administrator’s interpretation of any provision of this chapter or denial of a request for a variance. “Area of shallow flooding” means a designated AO or AH zone on the Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM). The base flood depths range from one to three feet; a clearly defined channel does not exist; the path of flooding is unpredictable and indeterminate; and velocity flow may be evident. Such flooding is characterized by ponding or sheet flow. FLOODPLAIN MANAGEMENT § 27-12 “Backfill” means the placement of fill material within a specified depression, hole or excavation pit below the surrounding adjacent ground level as a means of improving floodwater conveyance or to restore the land to the natural contours existing prior to excavation. “Base flood” means the flood having a one percent chance of being equaled or exceeded in any given year (also called the “one-hundred-year flood”). “Base flood elevation” means the water surface elevation of the base flood. “Basement” means any area of the building having its floor subgrade (below ground level) on all sides. “Breakaway walls” are any type of walls, whether solid or lattice, and whether constructed of concrete, masonry, wood, metal, plastic or any other suitable building material which is not part of the structural support of the building and which is designed to break away under abnormally high tides or wave action without causing any damage to the structural integrity of the building on which they are used or any buildings to which they might be carried by floodwaters. A breakaway wall shall have a safe design loading resistance of not less than ten and no more than twenty pounds per square foot. Use of breakaway walls must be certified by a licensed structural engineer or architect and shall meet the following conditions: (1) Breakaway wall collapse shall result from a water load less than that which would occur during the base flood; and (2) The elevated portion of the building shall not incur any structural damage due to the effects of wind and water loads acting simultaneously in the event of the base flood. “Coastal high hazard area” - See “Zone V” and “Zone VE.” “Development” means any man-made change to improved or unimproved real estate, including but not limited to buildings or other structures, mining, dredging, filling, grading, paving, excavation or drilling operations or storage of equipment or materials. “Drainage facility” - See “Watercourse.” “Encroachment” means the advance or infringement of uses, plant growth, fill, excavation, buildings, permanent structures or development into a floodplain which may impede or alter the flow capacity of a floodplain. “Existing manufactured home park or subdivision” means a manufactured home park or subdivision for which the construction of facilities for servicing the lots on which the manufactured homes are to be affixed (including, at a minimum, the installation of utilities, the construction of streets, and either final site grading or the pouring of concrete pads) is completed before May 5, 1982. “Expansion to an existing manufactured home park or subdivision” means the preparation of additional sites by the construction of facilities for servicing the lots on which the manufacturing homes are to be affixed (including the installation of utilities, the construction of streets, and either final site grading or the pouring of concrete pads). “Fill” is the placement of fill material at a specified location to bring the ground surface up to a desired elevation. 27-5 SUPP. 3 (1-2018) “Fill material” can be natural sand, dirt, soil or rock. For the purposes of floodplain management, fill material may include concrete, cement, soil cement, brick, or similar material as approved on a case-by-case basis. “Flood elevation determination” means a determination by the Federal Emergency Management Agency of the water surface elevations of the base flood, that is, the flood level that has a one percent or greater chance of occurrence in any given year. “Flood elevation study” or “flood study” means an examination, evaluation, and determination of flood hazards and, if appropriate, corresponding water surface elevations, or an examination, evaluation, and determination of flood-related erosion hazards. “Flood, flooding, or floodwater” means: (1) A general and temporary condition of partial or complete inundation of normally dry land areas from: (A) The overflow of inland or tidal waters; (B) The unusual and rapid accumulation or runoff of surface waters from any source; or (C) Mudslides (i.e., mudflows) which are approximately caused by flooding as defined in paragraph (1)(B) of this definition and are akin to a river of liquid and flowing mud on the surfaces of normally dry land areas, as when earth is carried by a current of water and deposited along the path of the current; or (2) The collapse or subsidence of land along the shore of a lake or other body of water as a result of erosion or undermining caused by waves or currents of water exceeding anticipated cyclical levels or suddenly caused by an unusually high water level in a natural body of water, accompanied by a severe storm, or by an unanticipated force of nature, such as flash flood or an abnormal tidal surge, or by some similarly unusual and unforeseeable event which results in flooding as defined in paragraph (1)(A) of this definition. “Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM)” means the official map on which the Federal Emergency Management Agency has delineated both the areas of special flood hazards and the risk premium zones applicable to the community. “Flood Insurance Study” means the official report provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency that includes flood profiles, the Flood Insurance Rate Map, and the water surface elevation of the base flood. “Flood protection system” means those physical structural works for which funds have been authorized, appropriated, and expended and which have been constructed specifically to modify flooding in order to reduce the extent of the area within a community subject to a “special flood hazard” and the extent of the depths of associated flooding. Such a system typically includes hurricane tidal barriers, dams, reservoirs, levees, or dikes. These specialized flood modifying works are those constructed to conform with sound engineering standards. “Floodplain administrator” is the individual appointed to administer and enforce the floodplain management regulations. This person shall be the director of public works of the County of Hawai‘i or the director’s duly authorized representative who shall be a currently licensed professional engineer in the State of Hawai‘i. SUPP. 3 (1-2018) 27-6 FLOODPLAIN MANAGEMENT § 27-12 “Floodplain management” means the operation of an overall program of corrective and preventive measures for reducing flood damage, including but not limited to emergency preparedness plans, flood control works and floodplain management regulations. “Floodplain management regulations” means zoning ordinances, subdivision regulations, building codes, health regulations, and special purpose ordinances (such as a floodplain ordinance or an erosion and sedimentation control ordinance) and other applications of police power. The term describes such state or local regulations, in any combination thereof, which provide standards for the purpose of flood damage prevention and reduction. “Floodplain or flood-prone area” means any land area susceptible to being inundated by water from any source (see definition of “flooding”). “Floodproofing” means any combination of structural and nonstructural additions, changes, or adjustments to structures which reduce or eliminate flood damage to real estate or improved real property, water and sanitary facilities, structures, and their contents. “Floodway fringe” is the areas of a floodplain on either side of the designated floodway where encroachment may be permitted. “Floodway” or “regulatory floodway” means the channel of a river or other watercourse and the adjacent land areas that must be reserved in order to discharge the base flood without cumulatively increasing the water surface elevation. “Fraud and victimization” related to article 5, variances, of this chapter means that the variance granted must not cause fraud on or victimization of the public. In examining this requirement, the director of public works will consider the fact that every newly constructed structure adds to government responsibilities and remains a part of the community for fifty to one hundred years. Structures that are permitted to be constructed below the base flood elevation are subject during all those years to increased risk of damage from floods, while future owners of the structure(s) and the community as a whole are subject to all the costs, inconvenience, danger, and suffering that those increased flood damages bring. In addition, future owners may purchase the structure(s), unaware that it is subject to potential flood damage, and the structure(s) can be insured only at very high flood insurance rates. “Freeboard” means a factor of safety usually expressed in feet above a flood level for purposes of floodplain management. “Freeboard” tends to compensate for the many unknown factors that could contribute to flood heights greater than the height calculated for a selected size flood and floodway conditions, such as wave action, bridge openings, and the hydrological effect of urbanization of the watershed. “Functionally dependent use” means a use which cannot perform its intended purpose unless it is located or carried out in close proximity to water. The term includes only docking facilities, port facilities that are necessary for the loading and unloading of cargo or passengers, and ship building and ship repair facilities, but does not include long-term storage or related manufacturing facilities. “General floodplain” - See “Zone A.” “Hardship” as related to article 5, variances, of this chapter means the hardship that would result from a failure to grant the requested variance. The director of public works requires that the variance be exceptional, unusual, and peculiar to the property involved. Mere economic or financial hardship alone is not exceptional. Inconvenience, aesthetic considerations, physical disabilities, personal preferences, or the disapproval of one’s neighbors likewise cannot, as a rule, qualify as exceptional hardships. All of these problems can be resolved through other means, without granting a variance. This is so even if the alternative means are more expensive or complicated than building with a variance, or if they require the property owner to put the parcel to a different use than originally intended, or to build elsewhere. “Highest adjacent grade” means the highest natural elevation of the ground surface prior to construction next to the proposed walls of a structure. “Historic structure” means any structure that is: (1) Listed individually in the National Register of Historic Places (a listing maintained by the Department of Interior) or preliminarily determined by the Secretary of the Interior as meeting the requirements for individual listing on the National Register; (2) Certified or preliminarily determined by the Secretary of the Interior as contributing to the historical significance of a registered historic district or a district preliminarily determined by the Secretary of the Interior to qualify as a registered historic district; (3) Individually listed on a State of Hawai‘i inventory of historic places where the historic preservation program has been approved by the Secretary of the Interior; or (4) Individually listed on a local inventory of historic places in communities with historic preservation programs that have been certified either: (A) By an approved State program as determined by the Secretary of the Interior, or (B) Directly by the Secretary of the Interior in states without approved programs. “Levee” means a man-made structure, usually an earthen embankment, designed and constructed in accordance with sound engineering practices to contain, control, or divert the flow of water so as to provide protection from temporary flooding. “Levee system” means a flood protection system which consists of a levee, or levees, and associated structures, such as closure and drainage devices, which are constructed and operated in accord with sound engineering practices. “Lowest floor” means the lowest floor of the lowest enclosed area (including basement). An unfinished or flood resistant enclosure, usable solely for parking of vehicles, building access, or storage in an area other than a basement area is not considered a building’s lowest floor provided that such enclosure is not built so as to render the structure in violation of the applicable nonelevation design requirements of this chapter. FLOODPLAIN MANAGEMENT § 27-12 “Manufactured home” means a structure, transportable in one or more sections, which is built on a permanent chassis and is designed for use with or without a permanent foundation when attached to the required utilities. The term “manufactured home” includes a “mobile home” but does not include a “recreational vehicle.” “Manufactured home park or subdivision” means a parcel (or contiguous parcels) of land divided into two or more manufactured home lots for rent or sale. “Market value.” For the purposes of determining substantial improvement, market value pertains only to the structure in question. It does not pertain to the land, landscaping, or detached accessory structures on the property. For determining substantial improvement, the value of the land must always be subtracted. Acceptable estimates of market value can be obtained from the following sources: (1) Independent appraisals by a professional appraiser licensed by the State. (2) Property appraisals used for tax assessment purposes by the County department of finance, real property tax office. (3) The value of buildings taken from National Flood Insurance Program claims data. This value shall be used as a screening tool to identify those structures where the substantial improvement ratio is less than forty percent or greater than sixty percent. “Mean sea level” means, for purposes of the National Flood Insurance Program, the National Geodetic Vertical Datum of 1929 or other datum, to which base flood elevations shown on a community’s Flood Insurance Rate Map are referenced. “Minimum necessary” related to article 5, variances, of this chapter means the minimum necessary to afford relief to the applicant of a variance with a minimum deviation from the requirements of this chapter. In the case of variances to an elevation requirement, this means the director of public works need not grant permission for the applicant to build at grade, for example, or even to whatever elevation the applicant proposes, but only that level that the director of public works believes will both provide relief and preserve the integrity of this chapter. “New construction” for floodplain management purposes, means structures for which the “start of construction” commenced on or after May 5, 1982, and includes any subsequent improvements to such structures. “New manufactured home park or subdivision” means a manufactured home park or subdivision for which the construction of facilities for servicing the lots on which the manufactured homes are to be affixed (including at a minimum, the installation of utilities, the construction of streets, and either final site grading or the pouring of concrete pads) is completed on or after May 5, 1982. “Obstruction” includes but is not limited to any dam, wall, wharf, embankment, levee, dike, pile, abutment, protection, excavation, channelization, bridge, conduit, culvert, building, wire, fence, rock, gravel, refuse, fill, structure, vegetation, or other material in, along, across, or projecting into any watercourse which may alter, impede, retard, or change the direction and/or velocity of the flow of water, or due to its location, its propensity to snare or collect debris carried by the flow of water or its likelihood of being carried downstream. “One-hundred-year flood” means a flood which has a one percent annual probability of being equaled or exceeded. It is identical to the “base flood.” “One-hundred-year floodplain” means any area of land susceptible to being inundated by water from any source generated by the one-hundred-year flood. “Primary frontal dune” means a continuous or nearly continuous mound or ridge of sand with relatively steep seaward and landward slopes immediately landward and adjacent to the beach and subject to erosion and overtopping from high tides and waves during major coastal storms. The inland limit of the primary frontal dune occurs at the point where there is a distinct change from a relatively mild slope. “Principal structure” means a structure used for the principal use of the property as distinguished from an accessory use. “Recreational vehicle” means a vehicle which is: (1) Built on a single chassis; (2) Four hundred square feet or less when measured at the largest horizontal projection; (3) Designed to be self-propelled or permanently towable by a light duty truck; and (4) Designed primarily not for use as a permanent dwelling but as temporary living quarters for recreational, camping, travel, or seasonal use. “Regulatory floodway” means the channel of a river or other watercourse and the adjacent land areas that must be reserved in order to discharge the base flood without cumulatively increasing the water surface elevation. “Repetitive loss structure” means home or business that was damaged by flood two times in the past ten years, where the cost of fully repairing the flood damage to the building, on the average, equaled or exceeded twenty-five percent of its market value at the time of each flood. “Riverine” means relating to, formed by, or resembling a river (including tributaries), stream, brook, etc. “Sand dunes” means naturally occurring accumulations of sand in ridges or mounds landward of the beach. “Sheet flow area” - See “area of shallow flooding.” “Special flood hazard area” means an area having special flood or flood-related erosion hazards, and shown on the Flood Insurance Rate Maps as Zones A, AO, AE, A99, AH, VE or V. FLOODPLAIN MANAGEMENT § 27-12 “Start of construction” includes substantial improvement and other proposed new development and means the date the building permit was issued, provided the actual start of construction, repair, reconstruction, rehabilitation, addition, placement, or other improvement was within one hundred-eighty days from the date of the permit. The actual start means either the first placement of permanent construction of a structure on a site, such as the pouring of slab or footings, the installation of piles, the construction of columns, or any work beyond the stage of excavation; or the placement of a manufactured home on a foundation. Permanent construction does not include land preparation, such as clearing, grading and filling; nor does it include the installation of streets and/or walkways; nor does it include excavation for a basement, footings, piers, or foundations or the erection of temporary forms; nor does it include the installation on the property of accessory buildings, such as garages or sheds not occupied as dwelling units or not part of the main structure. For a substantial improvement, the actual start of construction means the first alteration of any wall, ceiling, floor, or other structural part of a building, whether or not that alteration affects the external dimensions of the building. “State” means the State of Hawai‘i. “Structure” means a walled and roofed building, including a gas or liquid storage tank, that is principally above ground, as well as a manufactured home. “Substantial damage” means damage of any origin sustained by a structure whereby the cost of restoring the structure to its before damaged condition would equal or exceed fifty percent of the market value of the structure before the damage occurred. “Substantial improvement.” For the purposes of this chapter, the determination of whether any improvements constitute substantial improvements is applicable only to structures built prior to May 5, 1982 or buildings constructed after May 5, 1982 which were not within a special flood hazard area at the time of issuing the building permit. “Substantial improvement” means any repair, reconstruction, rehabilitation, addition, or other proposed new development of a structure, the cost of which equals or exceeds fifty percent of the market value of the structure before the “start of construction” of the improvement which shall be the sum of all costs of all such work performed in the previous three years including the cost of the current work being considered. The value of the structure including previous three year improvements, shall be certified by a contractor, engineer, or architect licensed by the State and the property owner as may be required on a form provided by the County. This term includes structures which have incurred “substantial damage,” regardless of the actual repair work performed. The term does not, however, include either: (1) Any project for improvement of a structure to correct existing violations of state or local health, sanitary, or safety code specifications which have been identified by the local code enforcement official and which are the minimum necessary to assure safe living conditions; or (2) Any alteration of a “historic structure,” provided that the alteration will not preclude the structure’s continued designation as a “historic structure.” “Variance” means a grant of relief from the requirements of this chapter which permits construction in a manner that would otherwise be prohibited by this chapter. “Violation” means the failure of a structure or other development to be fully compliant with the community’s floodplain management regulations. A structure or other development without the elevation certificate, other certifications, or other evidence of compliance with this chapter is presumed to be in violation until such time as that documentation is provided. “Water surface elevation” means the height, in relation to the National Geodetic Vertical Datum of 1929, (or other datum, where specified) of floods of various magnitudes and frequencies in the floodplains of coastal or riverine areas. “Watercourse” means a lake, river, creek, stream, wash, arroyo, channel, or other topographic feature on or over which waters flow at least periodically. Watercourse includes specifically designated areas in which substantial damage may occur. “Zone A” is the special flood hazard area that corresponds to the one hundred-year floodplains that are determined in the Flood Insurance Study by approximate methods. Because detailed hydraulic analyses are not performed for such areas, base flood elevations or depths have not been determined within this zone. “Zone A99” is the special flood hazard area where enough progress has been made on a protective system, such as dikes, dams, and levees, to consider it complete for insurance rating purposes. Base flood elevations have not been determined for areas designated as Zone A99. “Zone AE” is the special flood hazard area that corresponds to the one hundred-year floodplains that are determined in the Flood Insurance Study by detailed methods. Whole-foot base flood elevations derived from the detailed hydraulic analyses have been determined at selected intervals within this zone. “Zone AH” is the special flood hazard area that corresponds to the areas of one- hundred-year shallow flooding (usually areas of ponding) where average depths are between one and three feet. Whole-foot base flood elevations derived from the detailed hydraulic analyses have been determined at selected intervals within this zone. “Zone AO” is the special flood hazard area that corresponds to the areas of one- hundred-year shallow flooding (usually sheet flow on sloping terrain) where average depths are between one and three feet. Average whole-foot depths derived from the detailed hydraulic analyses have been determined within this zone. “Zone D” corresponds to unstudied areas where flood hazards are undetermined, but possible. “Zone V” is the special flood hazard area that corresponds to the one hundred-year coastal floodplains extending from offshore to the inland limit of a primary frontal dune along an open coast and any other area subject to high velocity wave action from storms or seismic sources. It is an area subject to high velocity waters, including coastal and tidal inundation or tsunamis. Base flood elevations have not been determined for areas designated as Zone V. FLOODPLAIN MANAGEMENT § 27-12 “Zone VE” is the special flood hazard area that corresponds to the one hundred-year coastal floodplains extending from offshore to the inland limit of a primary frontal dune along an open coast and any other area subject to high velocity wave action from storms or seismic sources. It is an area subject to high velocity waters, including coastal and tidal inundation or tsunamis. Whole-foot base flood elevations derived from the detailed hydraulic analyses have been determined at selected intervals within this zone. “Zone X (shaded)” are areas of moderate flood hazard corresponding to areas of the five-hundred-year floodplain, areas of one-hundred-year flooding where average depths are less than one foot, areas of one-hundred-year flooding where the contributing drainage area is less than one square mile, and areas protected from the one-hundred- year flood by levees. “Zone X (unshaded)” are areas of minimal flood hazard corresponding to areas outside of the five-hundred-year floodplain. Base flood elevations or depths have not been determined for Zone X. (1993, ord 93-78, sec 3; am 1997, ord 97-116, sec 1; am 2001, ord 01-108, secs 1 and 9; am 2007, ord 07-169, sec 7; am 2010, ord 10-115, secs 2 and 3; am 2017, 17-56, sec 5 and 6.) 27-12