Building inspection measure deferred

A City Council committee last week deferred a bill that would require periodic inspections and mandatory corrective action for unsafe conditions at commercial buildings, condominiums and apartments three stories or higher — a measure introduced in the wake of a fatal Ala Moana Center accident in which a railing collapsed.

Bill 17 was deferred pending further discussions with affected parties.

The measure would require inspections every five years of exterior walls and building accessories, such as flagpoles, signs, guardrails, window air conditioners and window frames, and for inspection reports to be filed with the city.

The Department of Planning and Permitting estimates the requirement would apply to about 4,000 buildings.

Building owners would be required to retain a licensed engineer or architect to conduct the inspections, and would be responsible for correcting any unsafe conditions found during inspection. Safety measures — such as temporary railings, barriers, fences or netting — would be required within 24 hours of notification by an inspector.

Building owners would also need to begin repair work within 10 days after receiving or filing a report of an unsafe condition. Re-inspections would occur within two weeks after repairs are completed.

The bill passed the second of three readings in March.

Councilman Trevor Ozawa had said he introduced the bill after one man died and another was critically injured when the railing they were leaning on collapsed at Ala Moana Center in October. His proposed amendments discussed at Thursday’s Zoning and Housing Committee meeting included changing the five-year inspections to 10 years.

Ozawa was not at Thursday’s meeting, but said the deferral will give him more time to work with those individuals and groups affected by the measure.

“I just don’t want somebody dying again because of any structural issues that could have possibly been prevented,” he said Thursday. “That’s the goal of this bill — to ensure that we have adequate inspections.”

The permitting department had issued a notice of violation to the owner of Ala Moana following the incident in October after city inspectors found rust and spalling in the railings on the Diamond Head side of the mall. The department issued a building permit to owner GGP Inc. in March for repairs to the railing near Ho‘okipa Terrace and other work, which would cost about $4 million.

The initial citation had required that the violation be corrected by November, but GGP had requested several extensions as it waited for the building permit to be approved. A spokeswoman for the mall said Thursday that repairs are ongoing but officials do not know when the work will be completed.

At Thursday’s meeting, Kathy Sokugawa, acting DPP director, said that while the department understands and accepts the bill’s intent, the private sector is already able to handle safety issues and does not need government intervention.

Jane Sugimura, president of the Hawaii Council of Associations of Apartment Owners, said condominiums and townhouses should be excluded from the bill because it would place more of a burden on associations to fund further inspections. She said most condominiums already conduct periodic inspections and set aside money for deferred maintenance, adding that those inspections should count toward the bill’s requirements so associations would not need to pay more money for duplicate services.

Other condominium owners also submitted testimony opposing the bill.

“Condominiums are not commercial buildings like the Ala Moana Center. We’re a different animal,” Sugimura said. “We agree with the intent and purpose of the bill. (But) we really haven’t had the time to really circulate the bill to the condominium community. I think that changes have to be made to this.”

Council members Ikaika Anderson and Carol Fuku­naga also raised similar concerns that there might need to be different requirements for residential and commercial structures.