Rain had been pounding the Islands for six weeks, but the rain that fell on March 31 seemed of biblical proportions.

Residents in Nu'uanu, Manoa, 'Aina Haina, Tantalus, Makiki, Kailua, Kalihi and other island areas felt the deluge and the cold hand of fear as boulders tumbled, mountainsides gave way and water and mud inundated houses and roads.

For those who live in Dowsett Highlands in Nu'uanu, however, water problems are not unusual. In the last four years, residents have been forced to sandbag and divert the water, rocks, mud and branches rushing down from the mountainside above their houses every time it rains heavily.

The Nu'uanu Valley Association (NVA) was formed in 2003 by Nu'uanu residents threatened by runoff and a development proposed above Dowsett Highlands, at the source of residents' water, mud and rock problems.

Residents are afraid. The aging roads, sewer lines and drainage systems built in the '40s and '50s for Dowsett Highlands are operating at maximum capacity now. Nu'uanu already has been the scene of one death and one near-death from falling boulders. No Hawai'i resident should have to live in fear that development will make his or her life less safe.

In an ideal world, developers would comprehend the inherent dangers of building on a precipitous mountainside and withdraw their subdivision application. But the world is not ideal, and residents' only recourse is to persuade government officials to actually act on their behalf.

Gov. Linda Lingle appears to be moving in the right direction. After the devastation in Hawai'i caused by the more than 40 days and nights of rain, she stated that the state and city need to re-examine zoning laws, especially on mountainsides and alongside streams.

Department of Land and Natural Resources Chairman Peter Young said April 4 in a radio interview that the state and counties need "a broader discussion of building near potentially hazardous areas."

Unfortunately, the city has not been as prescient. City bureaucrats and elected officials, with the exception of Councilman Rod Tam, refuse to act. Mayor Mufi Hannemann has been circumspect and uninvolved. The City Council has deferred action on NVA proposals to downzone to preservation a new 45-acre subdivision site and require a moratorium on development until new slope stability standards and a drainage study are completed.

But Henry Eng, director of the city Department of Planning and Permitting, says his department must approve the application as long as the developer jumps through the necessary hoops and the reports generated by the developer meet requirements regarding slope stability, drainage, sewage, access and archaeological sites.

Public participation in the process is a snare and a delusion. When NVA members tried to review such reports, the department, following its procedure, refused members access until after the reports had been accepted. This effectively stymied any effort by NVA members to engage their own experts.

The department does not take into account the discretion afforded by city regulations that say an application shall be disapproved if the area is not suitable for development and can't be mitigated. Furthermore, the city land-use ordinance requires placing in preservation any land that's unsafe for development. And the Development Plan requires that unsafe property be downgraded to preservation.

The Nu'uanu mountainside, zoned residential in the 1940s, is not properly zoned for conditions in 2006. Natural erosive forces, flooding, falling boulders and detrition of the terrain caused by hikers, hunters, wild pigs and dogs have altered the environment. Downzoning Dowsett Highlands' steep valley walls to preservation is long overdue.

A process that relies on inadequate mountainside development standards does not protect citizens. University of Hawai'i Environmental Center experts evaluated the geotechnical report that the city accepted; their review found that "potential hazards are incompletely and inadequately recognized and characterized."

These procedures also ignore the concerns of the taxpaying citizens. Eleven hundred Nu'uanu residents and friends have signed a petition against the development. Hundreds of e-mails and letters have been sent to Mayor Hannemann's office, the City Council and the permitting department.

The Islands are eroding, the mountains are crumbling, the rains are increasing and the boulders are falling, but city officials have their heads in the sand. This is an expensive policy, according to an April 4 article in The Advertiser: "The city has been held liable when soil slipped under homes in Manoa, 'Aina Haina, Kuli'ou'ou and Palolo."

Gov. Lingle and the state's Department of Land and Natural Resources are calling for discussions with the city to re-examine the zoning on mountainsides and in valleys. State Rep. Sylvia Luke has tried unsuccessfully to get a bill passed that would regulate or control the development of steep hillsides. And Sen. Suzanne Chun Oakland has introduced a resolution cautioning the city against approving development projects on "steep hillsides with potential rock-fall hazards."

It is time for Mayor Hannemann, the permitting department and the City Council to make decisions concerning subdivision applications that keep the people's safety foremost. In Nu'uanu, that would mean downzoning and a moratorium on mountainside development while a drainage study is conducted and stringent new standards for mountainside subdivisions are developed and implemented.

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