Kunia farmlands: Off-the-grid parcel zoned for ag draws concern

DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARADVERTISER.COM
The Star-Advertiser counted about a dozen houselike structures under construction last month at Kunia Loa Ridge Farmlands.

DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARADVERTISER.COM
There are house-like structures under construction at Kunia Loa Ridge Farmlands, where the pace of building has not slowed. Although they look like homes, homes (in the traditional sense) that people live in are not suppose to be built there.

DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARADVERTISER.COM
There are house-like structures under construction at Kunia Loa Ridge Farmlands, where the pace of building has not slowed. Although they look like homes, homes (in the traditional sense) that people live in are not suppose to be built there.

DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARADVERTISER.COM
There are houselike structures under construction at Kunia Loa Ridge Farmlands, though there are no paved roads, addresses or connections to power, water, sewer or phone grids. Many of the structures are not subject to building permit requirements.




Nestled in the Kunia foothills, the facility is billed as Hawaii’s first “doggy theme park.”
The company that operates the doggy day care touts it as being unlike any other in the islands, with “a million dollar view” from six different parks spread over 2.5 acres.
“Kama‘aina K9 Adventures goes beyond the traditional day care concept by providing nearly unlimited space to sniff, splash, run and explore in a safe, outdoor, theme park environment,” the company says on its website.
There’s one problem.
The Kama‘aina K9 facility is on land zoned Ag 1, which limits use to agribusiness. City regulations specifically list animal kennels as an unpermitted use.
Yet the day-care business has operated for the past year at Kunia Loa Ridge Farmlands, an off-the-grid 854-acre development that’s supposed to be restricted to agriculture. The entire property has become a hub for unregulated construction.
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It also has become the focus of growing controversy, raising concerns among diverse groups ranging from environmental organizations to the Hawaii Farm Bureau and the state Department of Agriculture.
Dozens of houselike structures have been built or are under construction throughout the sprawling development, which has no paved roads or addresses and is unconnected to Oahu’s power, water, sewer and telephone grids.
Some structures have people living in them despite statutory and Kunia Loa prohibitions against residential use, numerous people connected to the project have told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. The newspaper has chronicled the rise of this unusual development for the past two years.
Many of the structures that have been built or are under construction there are not subject to building permit requirements, according to the city, because of a state law passed several years ago.
Hawaii Revised Statutes Chapter 46-88, enacted in 2012, was designed to help farmers erect tool sheds, storage units and other small ag facilities on commercial farms outside the urban district by exempting the structures from the building code.
The idea was to free farmers from the long waits and high costs of obtaining building permits for small nonresidential facilities. The law’s proponents said the ag structures carried little risk of becoming safety hazards in a rural environment.
At Kunia Loa, however, numerous structures that look like houses have gone up, and some critics question whether they are ag buildings or comply with the exemptions allowed under the law. The Star-Advertiser counted about a dozen under construction during a visit last month.
One recently completed unit sits in a gulch that, according to people familiar with the area, flows with water after periods of prolonged heavy rain.
The pace of building at Kunia Loa has become so intense and general oversight so haphazard – a Buddhist temple openly operated there illegally for months – that some environmentalists, legislators and others are calling for the state to revisit the laws that allowed Kunia Loa to take hold.
“There’s nobody minding the store,” said Donna Wong, executive director of Hawaii’s Thousand Friends, an environmental advocacy group.
The city, which opposed the 2012 legislation creating the building-code exemptions, contends the proliferation of unregulated construction at Kunia Loa has created a potentially dangerous environment and public safety risk.
“Any time significant structures are built without a permit, regardless of location, we have life-safety concerns,” said George Atta, director of the Department of Planning and Permitting, which enforces building code and zoning violations, in written responses to the Star-Advertiser.
Over the past several years, the city has issued more than 40 construction and zoning-related citations at Kunia Loa, including many for building structures without a permit or not following approved plans, according to data obtained by the newspaper under a public records request.
But almost all the building-related citations eventually were dismissed after city inspectors determined the structures were nonresidential and met the other requirements under the 2012 exemption law, according to the data and the city.
Some people familiar with Kunia Loa, including a farm bureau official, told the Star-Advertiser that the laws aren’t the problem; they say the city is falling short of its oversight responsibility.
Several cited the Buddhist temple, whose owners were ordered by the city to discontinue worship services only after the Star-Advertiser wrote about it, and the doggy day care as examples.
“I really think what is needed is for DPP to enforce the law,” said Sen. Mike Gabbard (D, Kapolei-Makakilo), who is serving his first year as chairman of the Senate Committee on Water, Land and Agriculture.
Brian Miyamoto, executive director of the farm bureau, said in written comments to the Star-Advertiser that his organization’s understanding is that illegal structures have been erected at Kunia Loa but there is little, if any, enforcement.
He noted that the exemption law applies to limited types of structures, such as pre-engineered commercial buildings no more than 1,000 square feet in floor area, but not to dwellings.
Miyamoto said the bureau and others met with the city in 2014 to discuss Kunia Loa. At the time, Atta acknowledged that the situation was “not really the fault of the legislation and he agreed that DPP needed to do enforcement but that they were having trouble due to access and limited GPS capabilities,” Miyamoto wrote.
But Art Challacombe, DPP’s deputy director, disputed the notion that the city is failing in its oversight.
He said in a written statement that his agency has responded to every filed complaint about Kunia Loa despite the challenges of locating alleged illegal structures in an 854-acre project without directional signs, street names or addresses. Challacombe added that his inspectors need permission to enter the private development and the structures to inspect them and that DPP lacks the staff to do regular “sweeps” of such a huge area.
Even with the challenges of limited resources and the constraints of the exemption law, “we are doing our best to meet the demands of the community,” he said.
The complicated ownership structure at Kunia Loa has contributed to the muddied enforcement environment. The project is exempt from city rules regarding lot size, roadways, infrastructure and other improvements.
Individuals who bought into the project do not own their lots but own shares in the nonprofit Kunia Loa Ridge Farmlands, which owns the entire 854 acres and, through an association, oversees governance of the development’s bylaws. Some Kunia Loa farmers, who have long-term leases for specific lots, have described that oversight as insufficient. An association representative could not be reached for comment.
Sen. Laura Thielen (D, Hawaii Kai-Waimanalo-Kailua), former director of the state Department of Land and Natural Resources, said Kunia Loa’s designation as a condominium property regime, or CPR — an ownership form more typically used for high-rise residential buildings — has meant the huge development bypassed multiple state and county requirements dealing with land use and other areas.
“When you apply it to ag lands, that not only means a lot of concerns about bypassing land use laws but a lot of safety concerns,” Thielen said, citing as one example the difficulty firefighters would have responding to emergencies in a private development with unpaved, unnamed roads and no addresses.
Thielen is among those who are concerned that other landowners might replicate the Kunia Loa model — some refer to it as a “horizontal CPR” – to develop large ag parcels around the state while capitalizing on confusion surrounding the building code exemptions.
On Kauai, alarm bells already are sounding.
Kauai County’s planning director, Mike Dahilig, said in an email to the Star-Advertiser that horizontal CPRs have had a negative impact on agricultural lands.
“The recent changes to state law do make it harder to catch and enforce cheaters who try to put residential units on agricultural lands,” Dahilig wrote.
Residential units are not the issue at Kama‘aina K9, which lists on its website rates for daily and extended stays for dogs.
Asked how such a business can operate on Ag 1 land, a DPP spokesman said his agency intends to send an inspector to the property.
Kama‘aina K9 representatives did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
42 responses to “Kunia farmlands: Off-the-grid parcel zoned for ag draws concern”
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Sounds like the future of that Dela Cruz/Dole deal.
More like the legislature needs to give the city powers to enforce zoning laws. Courts shouldn’t be necessary when the law is very clearly broken. I doubt that the leasees can claim ignorance of the law.
are people still getting away with this? This made big news years ago and it’s still happening? Oh My God!
Last time I was there, it was mostly Filipinos and Vietnamese who were there. Not sure if they were the actual lease owners, or just farm workers.
http://www.staradvertiser.com/hawaii-news/buildings-attract-citations-from-city/
And a bunch of sit on your hands idiots.
“Enforcement but that they were having trouble due to access and limited GPS capabilities”
Really? Here on the Mainland I know the county I live in, they have aerial photographs taken by a private company, which then sells it to the county, where the county assessors compare with previous aerial photos, or if they are driving out in the country side and see a new structure out some where, they take note of its proximity and go back to the office and use Google Earth to see how to get there, print a shot of that google earth map and go back out there and hunt that structure down. No excuse, you talking about 900 acres there in Kunia, here in Douglas County you have millions of acres. And I was the Kanak finding and hunting these “Off Grid” structures down for the County. And eh, no forget, dis considered da South County of Oregon, plenty rednecks in des woods that love to practice their 2nd Amendment Rights to bare Arms. No Excuses bra!!
Rural south Oregon or not, you’re talking about the technologically astute versus the technologically challenged.
hah, daughter lives in Douglas County… SA is talking about Honolulu…. we just ignore the law, keep doing because we know our laws will not be enforced. They keep kicking it to State or blame State. Problem exactly like homeless…. By the way send them here, warm weather, lots of social services, City even cleans they sidewalk for them to read sent their camps…. not like the encampment at the older Roseburg Safeway.
re-set camps.
yup, just taught my daughter how to shoot too…..wants my older guns…
Gotta love it! Sounds like a New Age Taylor Camp. Problems with GPS? Hire the kid from the North Shore and his drone to take surveillance photos. Need enforcement and regulation? Elect Bumpy mayor of the area.
““There’s nobody minding the store,” said Donna Wong. No Donna! There’s nobody in government doing their job.
So what else is new. Now the lawmakers want to cash in at UH. More greed and avarice.
Better to be “OFF-THE-GRID” than a SLAVE TO THE MATRIX… Besides, POLITICIANS would ultimately sell the alleged AG-ZONED AINA TO SOME FOREIGN DEVELOPERS (for a “KING and QUEEN’S RANSOM”)…
Nothing gets ever properly investigated and penalties in this lawless state are are rare and don’t bite. All these houses should have been destroyed the day they pop up and the land confiscated.
Those pictures–those structures—clearly illegal. They are the beacon for lawless development in other communities.
Yes, and the last picture that looks down the road, out over the Central Plain and across to Ho’opili.
People demand enforcement of ag zoning rules at Kunia Loa, and insist that owners try to farm this dry, rocky, steeply-sloped, poor quality ag land. They are shocked that a few humble dwellings have been put up on land with great views and cool breezes. The unfortunate owners of these off-the-grid co-op parcels look down on the flat, fertile grade-A Ho’opili farmland that is in productive use, and that will soon be plaved over and riddled with residential development.
Does anyone else see the pathetic irony in all this?
The fact is, land use decisions by our city council and state supreme court, justified by the need for homes, have forever lost our best farmland. So now we clamor for enforcement to save our worst ag zoned land from low-impact development in order to protect “the rules”.
If the life of our land is perpetuated in righteousness, then maybe this explains why the ‘aina is slowly dying.
Those are tool sheds with live in security guards. And their family.
Simple Ag 1A, no doggy day care. This is simple!
As trump would say “Get’um outta here. Maybe we could snd the homeless to the doggie day care. Nice digs. All of thee off the grid locations must have illegal cess pools since you need permits for septic systems. How they get their water. Rain gutters?
The folks planning Koa Ridge took years just to get approval when all they had to do was just put up a bunch of buildings and call them sheds. No need to pave roads or install any utilities. This story needs to go viral so more people can get a piece of ag land before it’s all gone.
Why aren’t the elected City Council, State Representative and Senators from this area concerned about this project?
Probably there are envelopes under the table since they can’t also have a State job!
Another on the huge list of failures for the long time poor performer and phony mayor. Slack enforcement certainly is in line with his cement the rest of the aina program.
More incompetence by the Caldwell administration. What part of illegal do they not understand. This is typical “work” by City inspectors. I reported an illegal event going on weekends but the City works 9-5 on Monday through Friday so did their inspection on Friday and reported no violations. Of urseco not, I told them they happened on weekends!
Is this project legal or illegal? Who’s responsible?
So what about using drones and GPS-enhanced imagery to call out the violators?
Urban sprawl because of a huge housing shortage on the way home. It’s going to get worse.
I’ve got several notices over the last few years from the City and County–for leaving my portable basketball net out on the curb in violation of city law. The letters stated that if I didn’t move it they would dismantle it and bill me for it. Wow, you can enforce this dumb law but you can’t go after people building illegal dwellings without a permit on ag land? Unbelievable!
Hart and caldwell probably have control of this area also!!
But they have to get permission to enter the property. State should change that.
Based upon these published photos, they should have evidence to get a search warrant. Could be pot farming there also.
It it looks like a house and acts like a house, it’s a tool shed. Government bureaucrat thinking at its finest.
That’s a nice tool shed in the picture. Can I build a tool shed like that on my property? But if I do it, the City and DPP will be all over my property to tear it down. Laws and regulations don’t mean anything when we have an inept lazy City and DPP who always has excuses like “no resources”, “understaffed”, “can’t get access”, “no gps”, wah wah wah!
This is the second time headline grabbing news surfaced for this problem. So sad that between the City and the State government managers they still cannot get it fixed. Just like the homeless problem.
Officials do not want to fix it: They avoid the effort and trouble to deal with a cunning lawless people, they rather look the other way and slurp their coffee and munch their doughnuts and shuffle their papers.
The concern is for “public safety”??? Right, more like missing out on taxation and corrupt building inspectors missing out on envelopes with cash inside. The permitting process for my owner/builder construction was an unbelievable example of inefficiency, lack of common sense and abuse of power by the C&C employees involved in this process. They had no problem coming to my build site for unscheduled “look see, while in the neighborhood” visits. Just show up with a police officer and shut them down. Should be able to knock it out in less than a day. I felt like I was treated like a criminal doing it legit. How hard can it be to stop this”public safety problem”????
True. Inspectors are truly corrupt. They’re not doing thin jobs.
How come your boss hasnt done anything about it?
“None is so blind as those who won’t see.” DPP just gives one lame excuse after another for not enforcing the law. Good place to start a pakalolo farm.
How do you expect Caldwell to do anything? Every time a problem comes up, he is on the mainland or visiting a sister-city. Amemiya keeps waiting for Caldwell to return. Remember, DPP won’t do anything. How many years does it take to clean up two trash houses in Kaimuki and Makiki. The Rail will be long operational before Kunia will be cleaned up.
Don’t worry, HGEA is working for you.
I’m not a lawyer…but how exactly does one buy a “share” in a CPR?
Sounds like this is some kind of co-opt. Advertiser should check its information before publishing.