Section 13-275-3 - Obtaining a determination letter; generally(a) For the department to provide a letter of determination, an agency proposing a project which may have an effect upon historic properties shall notify the department of the proposed project and request a letter of determination. Upon the request of the department, the agency shall provide the department with information as to the number of historic properties within a proposed project area, their significance, the impact of the proposed project on the historic properties, and any proposed mitigation measures. Upon receipt of adequate information the department will provide a determination letter within ninety days. Any agency involved in the historic preservation review process Shall consult and obtain the written approval of the SHPD at each step of the review. Once concurrence is received, the agency may begin the project. In cases where interim protection plans are adequately in place or data recovery fieldwork has been adequately completed, a determination letter may be issued.(b) The review steps, to be described in greater detail in the following sections, are as follows: (1) Identification and inventory, to determine if historic properties are present in the project's area and, if so, to identify and document (inventory) them;(2) Evaluation of significance;(3) Effect (impact) determination;(4) Mitigation commitments, committing to acceptable forms of mitigation in order to properly handle or minimize impacts to significant properties;(5) Detailed mitigation plan, scope of work to properly carry-out the general mitigation commitments; and(6) Verification of completion of detailed mitigation plan.(c) Documents for review steps one through four shall be submitted concurrently.(d) A receipt date will be stamped on all review documents received by the SHPD.(e) The SHPD shall send its written comments on each step's submittal to the agency within, the amount of time specified under each section of this chapter, or by a mutually agreed upon date. Copies of SHPD written comments will also be sent to any interested persons who have expressed concerns with the project by that point in the process. If the SHPD fails to send written comments within the set time, or by a mutually agreed upon date, then the SHPD is presumed to concur with the agency's submittal.(f) The SHPD shall consider interested persons comments on any submittals acceptability in accordance with this chapter and chapters 13-276 through 13-283. Comments must be submitted in writing to the SHPD within thirty days of the SHPD's posting a notice of "no historic properties affected" determination or posting a notice of SHPD receipt of information. The SHPD shall post notice every Friday of receipt of relevant documents and of issuance of SHPD "no historic properties affected" or receipt of information. The notice shall be posted at the SHPD office and on the SHPD's website. Should the office be closed on any Friday as a result of a holiday or some type of disaster, the information shall be posted on the first following working day. Interested persons shall contact the SHPD to obtain copies of this notice, or to find locations of documents, should they wish to review them.(g) If the agency or interested persons disagree with the accuracy of the SHPD's determination and if disagreements cannot be resolved through meetings with the SHPD, an appeal may be made to the Hawaii historic places review board within thirty days of the SHPD's determination letter. An appeal is initiated by a written request to the Hawaii historic places review board to appeal a SHPD determination.[Eff DEC 11 2003] (Auth: HRS § 6E-3) (Imp: HRS §§ 6E-3, 6E-7, 6E-8)