Demand for homes rises despite rockfall risks
By Suzanne Roig
Advertiser East Honolulu Writer
HAWAI'I KAI — In the upscale neighborhoods of Hawai'i Kai, where remaining undeveloped land is scarce and highly prized, even the threat of rockslides isn't enough to discourage developers and homeowners.
Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser
Schuler Homes Hawai'i has sold 16 of the 60 homes in its new Le'olani development in Kamilonui Valley at prices of $600,000 and up, just a quarter-mile down the road from the Lalea condominiums, where some residents were urged to evacuate after two large boulders tumbled down the hillside during heavy rains on Thanksgiving Day.
Below Mariner's Ridge, land on the hillside is being quarried for the Le'olani residential development in Kamilonui Valley in Hawai'i Kai. Developer Schuler Homes Hawaii is required to tell potential homebuyers about the risk of rockslides and take measures to minimize those risks.
Rockfalls are common on an island of mountains and valleys. But as residential neighborhoods have sprawled closer to hills in the last 30 years, the odds of tumbling boulders causing damage and injury has grown significantly, and prompted a more thorough review of plans to build homes close to hillsides.
A death that resulted when a 5-ton boulder hurtled down a Nu'uanu hillside and smashed into a home, killing Dara Onishi in August, has given rise to new concerns about safety and liability, particularly in planning new residential neighborhoods in potentially unstable areas.
The City Council last year approved rezoning for the Le'olani development, despite testimony from Hawai'i Kai residents and farmers about flooding and erosion from rainstorms and boulders crashing down into spillways.
As a condition of approval, the council required the developer to notify potential homebuyers of the risk of rockslides. The developer also was told to hire a geo-technical engineer to study soil conditions and the effects of construction on the stability of slopes below Mariner's Ridge.
"It's a developer's responsibility to provide a living environment that's safe," said Mike Jones, president of Schuler Homes Hawai'i. "That's what we're trying to do."
Councilman John DeSoto, who heads the Zoning Committee, said he knew of no other project in which the developer was told to disclose soil conditions as a condition of zoning approval.
But even when risks are disclosed, some wonder whether the city could be held liable.
"This could become a Pandora's box of huge proportion," said City Councilman-elect Charles Djou, whose district includes Hawai'i Kai. "I'm loath to say that the city should bear the responsibility. The onus should be on the developer to come up with a solid development plan, and the landowner should take responsibility. And finally the homebuyer bears some responsibility. But I think the council should look at this.
"In future development plans and future proposed subdivisions, I'd like to see the developers address the rockslides and the responsibility. I don't want the taxpayers to always be responsible."
Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser
Plans for Le'olani have been examined closely by the city and geo-technical engineers, who have come up with a plan to make the project safe, Jones said.
Agricultural consultant and nurseryman Gary Weller, standing in front of a concrete spillway designed to minimize damage from rockfalls, is among the Kamilonui Valley residents who oppose the Le'olani project.
Homes along the slope are separated from the mountain by a road and a catchment basin, the development was scaled back from 300 homes to 60 to take into account the instability of the soil, and buyers are being made aware of the soil conditions, Jones said.
Schuler also is carving away loose boulders and soil above the development.
"The plans have been looked at many times, because this was a concern way back," Jones said. "It is a lot of site work for 60 homes, but there is only so much residential zoned land in Hawai'i Kai. It's a special location."
In most municipalities, including Honolulu, standard practice on a proposed subdivision is purely in-house review among city, state and sometimes federal departments, said Loretta Chee, city director of the Department of Planning and Permitting.
The developer is required to provide a plan detailing not just location and density of the project, but infrastructure, public facilities such as parks, the road width and other factors including "anything out of the ordinary," Chee said.
"Our job is to assure whomever buys the land that it has all the basic infrastructure to serve it," Chee said.
Generally, the veracity of plans and maps is the responsibility of the engineer hired by the developer, said David Arakawa, city corporation counsel.
"It's not worth their license to lie, or not identify a potential problem," Arakawa said. "The liability would be on the engineer."
Typically, about a dozen government offices review a subdivision proposal, Chee said. Not all such proposals are approved, but Chee said she did not know of any that had been denied because of potential rockslide conditions.
The Le'olani development underwent considerably more public scrutiny than usual, because it required a zoning change, Chee said. That meant it was subject to City Council approval and associated public hearings, plus another public hearing at the department level, and a number of city inspections once work began.
Normally, the city will require extensive soil studies only for a project proposed in an area it has knowledge of previous rockfalls or landslides, as in Palolo, Moanalua Valley, 'Aina Haina, Manoa or Waimanalo, Chee said.
But the city ordered Le'olani's developer to perform such a study in response to public comments about conditions in Kamilonui Valley.
According to a geotechnical engineer's report dated March 2002 prepared for the Le'olani development by Geolabs, the area is subject to falling rocks and boulders similar to other sites bordering ridge slope areas. Engineers recommended that the developer install a catchment basin near the property boundary to catch rolling boulders, perform sweeps along the upper boundary of the site to identify and remove loose boulders, and set back any structures away from the toe of hillside slopes to create an additional boulder catchment area.
However, the study stated, "It must be pointed out that whatever methods are used, an inherent risk of falling rocks/boulders could still exist for the buildings located adjacent to the sloping hillside.
"It is our opinion that no matter what precautions or measures are taken, there is always the risk of boulders rolling down the hill. Whatever measures are chosen, it only reduces the risk."
The study also pointed out that the soil has a high adobe clay content, which has a tendency to absorb water and expand when wet and contract when dry. Heavy rainfall has been associated with some recent rockfalls, such as the Thanksgiving Day incident on Hawai'i Kai Drive.
The adequacy of city land use controls on development of steep slopes and/or unstable soil has come into question before.
In July 2001, theniCity Councilman Jon Yoshimura wrote a resolution, adopted by unanimous vote that September, urging the city Department of Planning and Permitting to assess those controls within 180 days. But Yoshimura said recently he did not recall ever receiving a report.
The city has paid out money to "undertake mitigative measures to ensure that public health and property are not further impacted by instability of structures on steep slopes," Yoshimura said in his resolution.
The city paid $7 million to 11 'Aina Haina homeowners to settle a lawsuit filed after their homes began sliding down the hillside after a 1989 rainstorm that caused sewer lines to crack and leak.
O'ahu has had rockslide problems for years, Yoshimura said. An estimated 10,000 to 20,000 O'ahu homes could be in danger, and the problem is expected to worsen as natural erosion runs up against the need for new housing.
"The situation with Dara Onishi was the first one in recent years that caused a death," Yoshimura said. However, "I've always been concerned about development in these areas."
Nonetheless, Ben Lee, city managing director, said there is no need to revise laws and rules governing development on steep hillsides.
"The existing rules are adequate," Lee said. "Rockfalls have been going on all the time. These are acts of nature. I'm not sure there's any more we can do to anticipate when it might happen. It's the owner and developer's responsibility to disclose to the city. Our job here is to ensure the development complies with the codes and rules."
Donald Clegg, a former city land use director turned consultant, agreed. "The controls are there," he said.
Under the city's subdivision rules, the director of planning and permitting can deny a developer's building plan if the land is found unsuitable because of rockfall or because it is prone to landslides, Clegg said.
Ultimately, responsibility must be shared, he said.
At Le'olani, the legal effect of the developer's disclosure is to bring buyers into the fold of responsibility. "The government must ensure that the developer and the landowners disclose the soil conditions," Clegg said. "Once it's disclosed, then it's up to the buyer."
Reach Suzanne Roig at sroig@honoluluadvertiser.com or 395-8831.
