The CoH has to rethink zoning and building codes

[DanielP]

quote:

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Originally posted by Obie

Vacationland and Beach Lots were in lava zone 2.

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perhaps the zones need some rethinking

[Obie]

quote:

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Originally posted by DanielP

quote:

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Originally posted by Obie

Vacationland and Beach Lots were in lava zone 2.

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perhaps the zones need some rethinking

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Not really.

Lava zone 1 is the rift area.
Lava zone 2 is downhill from 1.

Bigger flow than anyone expected.

[kalakoa]

http://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2018...ost-ready/

Kim said all of the infrastructure in the area has been taken by lava and it would take a minimum of $5 million per mile to repair roads, which would require lava removal.

At those prices, it would be cheaper to buy everyone a "replacement" 3/2 in HPP.

[terracore]

"The problem no one brings up with this idea relates to sewage and its disposal. "

Alaska deals with their "honey buckets" via regular service that hauls it away and treats it to whatever the EPA or state regs are. There is no reason to drill into the permafrost, or rock, to install overkill expensive sanitation systems that combine gray water with #1 and #2. Gray water can be used to irrigate crops or just dumped into a hole. For that matter, so can #1.

[ironyak]

Rob - given your experience with the county, I would be interested in hearing what you see as the steps needed to move any type of change forward. The county has a vested interest in big development regardless of the lava zone, and most everyone else (insurance, homeowners, state, FEMA, etc) picks up the cost of clean-up. How is it in the interest of the county to change anything or how can it be made so? (election year)

With over 500 homes lost so far the only comparable event may be the 1960 tsunami? How can that model of removing private land from the bay area, and opening up new lands for purchase/lease, (other actions?) be applied to the current event?

[kalakoa]

opening up new lands for purchase/lease

No. Just, no. The "subdivision craze" created 80,000 lots -- surely we can find 500 or so that are vacant.

If government wants to spend money, improve services to those existing lots.

[ironyak]

It costs next to nothing to offer government lands & you know they are scared to death of setting a precedent of providing services for the speculative subdivisions (Planning Director Suefuji argued back in the 1960s that it would be less expensive to buy back all the lots than to have to service even a small percentage of them - Land Use Commission said in 1963 that providing services that the eventual homeowners would demand is a direct threat to the solvency of the government, etc)

Ruderman is currently pursuing this land offering mechanism left over from the 1960 tsunami. Not clear what the source or location of these offerings would be.

[kalakoa]

it would be less expensive to buy back all the lots than to have to service even a small percentage of them

Compared to the cost of building out all the services to a newly-platted subdivision?

More or less expensive than Kim's "$5M/mile to repair roads"?

providing services that the eventual homeowners would demand is a direct threat to the solvency of the government

If they're going to keep raising taxes and insisting on permit fees, then eventually people will demand services for that money.

[Seeb]

At 5 Million a mile and not knowing how many years this vent is going to be active it would be pretty stupid to spend money to put people back in the danger area where they should have never allowed a subdivision in the first place. No bank is going to approve a loan on fresh lava or insure it

[glinda]

In days gone by folks set aside certain areas 'for the gods' and it was good. They had their lives, and the gods theirs, and a balance was achieved. Modern humanity, with all it's wisdom, hasn't retained that trait. The balance has been lost, and as is always the case the gods.. well you get the picture.

I agree with DanielP, we (collectively) made decisions and are now living through their consequences. The 'not in my lifetime' angle didn't pan out. Do we want to set it all up and do it over again.. and again? Or is it time to rethink our policies with regards zone 1? Is it time to take responsibility for the fact that residential subdivisions on the rift probably isn’t all that good an idea?

The interesting thing to me.. purely from a long overview of things... where in the past it has always looked like Pele wasn't all that favorable to geothermal now it looks like she's moved right in with 'em. Talk about buffer zones, and renewable resources, the pictures on the tele of that industrial complex.. that bank of turbines.. all those pipes looking like they're plugged into the fountains themselves.. Ormat's advertising agency must be having so much fun. If, big if, she actually leaves them alone beyond all that has come so far, they'll be the darlings of the industry.

So yes.. as is the topic of this thread.. The CoH has to rethink zoning and building codes.. it would probably be wise to include the neighbors in one's considerations. After all, their permits are all in order, and as it stands, at the moment, so is most of their infrastructure. I imagine that place could be back online in no time, and could scale up very easily. And, you got to figure now that all the land around them is probably at it's all time lowest value it's probable they're going to try to buy up the neighborhood.

Even Russell's idea of a land swap, your zone 1 for our zone 3, which is probably the best idea for long term planning of zone 1 lands, brings up concerns of what will happen with zone 1? If it was truly left to the gods, a place we all could visit and have life enriching experiences, even on a temporary type permanent basis, that'd be cool. But could we be opening the door for all those dreams of powering Oahu? After all, politically and financially, there has always been more than local interest jockeying for a say in the direction Puna grows over time.

The other thing about but Russell's idea, rather than building some sort of from scratch and consolidated into one subdivision (which sounds like a windfall for somebody's cousin) I think buying up all the empty bank owned properties would be a lot quicker solution that would create different options throughout all our communities immediately. That is if there really is an inventory of unoccupied homes on the island.