The surveying, staking, tagging and cutting of the 50-acre parcel slated for development in Nu'uanu's Dowsett Highlands have begun.

Residents are worried.

Although the Nu'uanu Valley Association and the Nu'uanu-Punchbowl Neighborhood Board have scheduled a meeting tomorrow and invited the developer and Department of Planning and Permitting representatives, many of us fear that our opposition to the development will remain unremedied — becoming yet another case of economics over safety, of unresponsive government over the concerns of citizens, of outdated zoning over the exigencies of current environmental conditions, and of progress over cultural values.

Like all taxpayers, we are entitled to have a say about the land we love and the future of our Islands. We want the reasons for our opposition to the proposed development in Nu'uanu not only heard but also addressed.

The 300 yard signs in the Dowsett, Dowsett Highlands and Old Pali Road areas of Nu'uanu protesting the development show boulders falling off the mountain past a bulldozer. These signs graphically express the safety concerns of residents concerning the proposed development. And these fears are well-founded. Since 1992, falling boulders have generated emergencies in Manoa, Niu Valley, Sacred Falls, Waimea Bay, Makapu'u, Hawai'i Kai and Wai'alae Nui. In Nu'uanu, a boulder incident resulted in a tragic death in 2002; in 2004, a falling boulder hit a home, barely missing the resident.

Yet legislation aimed at addressing the falling-boulder problem is slow in coming. It is true the City Council recently passed a bill introduced by Councilman Rod Tam requiring developers applying for building permits on hillsides to submit engineering slope hazard reports. This is a baby step in the right direction. But excellent bills proposed by state Rep. Sylvia Luke to stop or regulate development of steep hillsides did not pass, apparently because the counties, not the state, have jurisdiction over these matters. Necessary action at the city and county level, though, has not been forthcoming.

Eight hundred signatures and untold numbers of letters sent to Department of Planning and Permitting Director Henry Eng express additional concerns about the development. The letters document existing problems that will be aggravated by the destabilization caused by bulldozers and construction in the ravines and woodlands and along the steep slopes of the 50 acres. One of these existing problems is the river of mud, rocks, branches and leaves that already pours into the streets out of the proposed development site in heavy rains, causing flooding in some houses.

And residents' concerns about the aging sewer system are not unfounded. In 2003, the EPA ordered the city to explain the 33 spills in Kalihi and Nu'uanu streams since 1998 and how it planned to remedy the problem. In January 2004, more sewer spills caused by heavy rains occurred in Nu'uanu Stream, contributing to the contamination of the ocean on O'ahu's South Shore. Sewer spills in heavy rains have been common.

A development of any size will add more cars to the established neighborhoods, compromising the safety of those who stroll with babies and children, walk, run, cycle and skateboard in narrow, winding streets without sidewalks. Residents in the 1930s, '40s and '50s had one car per family and one-family homes, with no SUVs and monster trucks. Today's multicar and often extended families park their vehicles, large and small, on the streets. Development could add anywhere from 18 to 100 more cars to the already congested streets and exacerbate traffic problems on the Pali Highway.

Finally, many residents are angry about the possible destruction of unsurveyed archaeological sites in the area of the proposed development. Archaeological sites, no matter how seemingly insignificant, are like endangered species. Once they are gone, information about other cultures and the past that could be gleaned from them is lost forever.

The area of the proposed development was zoned residential when Dowsett was first developed in the '30s and '40s. However, in 1967, the city's Land Use Commission created a Detailed Land Use Map for its General Plan designating the area of the proposed development preservation. That designation got lost in the shuffle of changing governors, mayors and City Council members, but it was important because it reflected an updated and more realistic evaluation of the limits of the terrain and the infrastructure of a more modern neighborhood. Now, in 2005, a re-evaluation of the zoning is long overdue.

These issues involved in this development are specific to Nu'uanu, but they affect all of us who call Hawai'i home. As Sylvia Luke said in James Gonser's July 3 article in The Honolulu Advertiser, "Now that we have this major lack of affordable housing problem, developers are going to look at every available piece of land, even undevelopable or unsafe lands, to see if they can try to turn things into a profit."

In the absence of state legislation concerning development of mountainsides and in the presence of outdated City and County rules relating to development, it is up to the mayor and the city's Department of Planning and Permitting to protect the beauty of this island and the safety of its residents.

From the Pali Highway, drivers can see the green above Dowsett Highlands reaching to the knife-edged pali that forms one wall of Nu'uanu valley. The green is part of the loveliness of Nu'uanu, enjoyed by residents and tourists. To scar the side of the valley with more building is to further diminish the grace of the 'aina that Islanders treasure and visitors come to see.

Sally Hall has lived in Dowsett Highlands for 29 years. She wrote this commentary for The Advertiser.