Concerned Maui County residents are encouraged to testify to the County Council this Tues 5/24 at 9 am in Council Chambers or online via Bluejeans: https://bluejeans.com/175115369

Short of the hiring lawyers and filing suits against the developer, department directors, and the County, (which the Napili Bay Community Association is raising funds to - Donate at www.Napili.org ) there still is a chance that community pressure could motivate the County Council to honor its duty to launch an official investigation into the many irregularities and violations of codes and our community's rights which surround this project. 

Just how dysfunctional and corrupt Maui's Corporation Counsel, Public Works, and Planning Department leaders and process are is detailed in a scathing report released just last week by the County Auditor. Access the Audit here or read excerpts below:  

GREAT Committee Chair Mike Molina has not yet put that report on the committee's agenda but since the Auditor specifically references Greg Brown's and Michelle McLean's abuse of process in his report it's fair game to bring the report into Tuesday's testimony to justify the Council launching an official investigation.

On page 5 and elsewhere, the Auditor clearly calls to the County Council to investigate and rewrite Title 19 to stop the abuse of process and favoritism that Greg Brown's Napili project so clearly demonstrates:

"...we also found that consistency in ZAED is an issue because the County, the Department, and ZAED do not have robust and clear laws, policies, procedures, and other standards to ensure consistency. To review applications in its jurisdiction, ZAED must comply with numerous County and State laws and regulations. As guidance, it relies heavily on numerous Departmental memoranda. The memoranda are not easy to find or readily available to the public. A prior audit of the County’s planning code, MCC Title 19 (“Title 19”), surmised that the need for the numerous internal memoranda is “..undoubtedly attributable to the fact that Title 19 as it is currently written is outdated and difficult to apply without a lot of interpretation and additional explanation.”

Other talking points you can reference in your testimony:

Planning Director Mclean has stated that the public was correct in identifying Brown's multiple violations and misrepresentations. The most basic of these is that Brown is building using Hotel design standards and therefore never qualified for an SMA Permit Exemption which can only be awarded to a single-family home. 
 
Brown's original SMA permit exemption was improperly secured and is therefore invalid. 

Before he was pressured into leaving his job for faithfully doing his job, DSA Supervising Inspector Derek Hyland issued Stop Work Orders to Greg Brown. In collaboration with Corporation Counsel and Mayor Victorino, Planning Director McLean recently resurrected Brown's invalid building permits through an administrative process that the Auditor clearly identifies as faulty and unprofessional.  

Neither the Planning Department nor the developer has actually cured any of the underlying invalidity of the permits and plans. As such, our community demands that Brown's Stop Work Orders be reinstated immediately.

One of the Stop Work Orders resulted from massive terraced stone walls and grading quantities that were not included on the plans submitted to obtain an SMA Permit exemption for the project.  The structures were built with no permit on backfilled soil without performing the compaction tests that their own licensed civil engineer determined were required when they stamped the C-1 grading plans.

Without these required compaction tests, how can anyone assure the community that the unregulated and unstudied grading and retaining walls are not likely to catastrophically fail from heavy rains or earth movement and bring this massive structure, roof pool, and all, sliding down the hillside into the homes below?

Planning Director Mclean has now issued a separate after-the-fact SMA Minor Permit for the walls and grading as a subversive maneuver to attempt to falsely cure the violations and misrepresentations by Brown Development on the original SMA Permit and building permit applications.

We dispute this decision by Planning Director Mclean on multiple grounds along with the DSA’s failure to perform their duties to ensure the SMA Minor Permit was issued in compliance with the Maui County Code, as follows; 

1) The Project valuation listed on the SMA Permit application for terraced walls is $15,000.00. In response to a UIPA request, Planning Director Mclean has confirmed there is no construction cost estimate stamped by a professional engineer or architect to support this fabricated SMA Minor Permit valuation. In Council Testimony on March 22, 2022, it was widely acknowledged that the Developer's valuation was a gross misrepresentation.

We assert that DSA has a duty to confirm this valuation is falsified, immediately revoke the grading permit to Brown Development, and resurrect the Stop Work Order.   Planning Director Mclean cannot allow Brown Development to fix this gross misrepresentation. Under the rules and stated language in the application, the SMA Minor Permit must be revoked and the appropriate fines must be issued. 

2. Through a UIPA request, Planning Director Mclean also confirmed there is no site survey presented by a licensed land surveyor to support the representation that the property line retaining wall is less than 36”. Based on field measurements performed by the adjacent neighbor who is a licensed contractor, we dispute this representation and along with the allegation that building permits were not required for the retaining wall structures.

DSA plans examiner Lance Nakamura, PE, is accepting an after-the-fact representation by Brown Development without sufficient professional surveyor documentation.  At the same time, Mr. Nakamura is disregarding the stamped condition on the original grading plans which requires soil compaction tests.  This developer-friendly decision is unacceptable.

3. As represented on the approved construction drawings, the Building plans were designed and stamped by the licensed Architect under Hotel District standards of the Maui County Code. (19.14.050) In accordance with Chapter 19, Section 19.14.050, Hotel H-1 standards, swimming pools, and drainage structures are not permitted in the building setbacks.

Mr. Nakamura is negligent in this duties to ensure the grading plans are in conformance with Title 19 of the Maui County Code.

As Brown's C-1 grading plan is incorporated into his building plans, We believe that there is just cause to reinstate the Stop Work Orders on grading permit (#2019/0075) and building permit. (B2020/0448)