Honolulu City Council panel to hear more ‘monster house’ bills

Two bills aimed at toughening laws on violators of building and zoning codes go before the City Council Zoning and Planning Committee on Thursday while a closely watched third bill will not.

There’s been increased scrutiny at Honolulu Hale over the past year on the builders of so-called monster houses, large-scale residential structures that have been sprouting up and towering over their neighbors in older, sleepier residential Oahu neighborhoods like Palolo, Manoa and Kamehameha Heights. Some violate building and zoning laws, while others skirt existing laws and have left neighbors outraged.

News stories also have spotlighted residential structures that have gone up without building permits and/or while under stop-work orders. Most of the work on a large-scale duplex on Date Street in Kapahulu was nearly entirely without a building permit, and then continued despite a stop-work order until earlier this year when two notices of violation were issued by the city. To date, the project’s contractor and landowners have racked up fines totaling $128,400, and they continue to grow by $1,050 daily, including weekends.

The issues also have called into scrutiny the ability of the city, and the Department of Planning and Permitting specifically, to get a grip on the violators.

The two latest bills to address the issue are:

>> Bill 50, which imposes stiffer penalties on contractors or homeowners who violate the interim moratorium on large-scale houses, established under Bill 110 (2017) in March to allow DPP time to come up with more permanent rules for monster houses.

Introduced by Council members Ernie Martin and Carol Fukunaga, Bill 50 also would make the moratorium retroactive to all building permits of large-scale houses issued from Jan. 1, 2016. It also calls for the demolition of new or renovated dwellings, or at least the portion in violation, if construction work continues after a notice of order is issued. A landowner, contractor or other responsible party also would be barred from applying for another building permit for a year.

Fukunaga said the bill provides DPP with “a lot more teeth” in penalizing illegal structures. Her office continues to get complaints from neighbors of illegal structures about an array of violations from the delivery of grading equipment in the middle of the night, lack of lighting or screening, and operation of heavy equipment by minors, she said.

>> Bill 53 increases the amount of fines to parties that erect, construct, enlarge, alter, repair, move, improve, remove or convert a structure without the necessary permits.

Introduced by Council Zoning Chairwoman Kymberly Pine, the civil fine would be $2,000 for starting work on a project without a building permit and then $10,000, or 10 times the value of the building permit, whichever is greater, if work continues after a stop-work order is imposed. Additionally, DPP and the responsible party would be barred from “negotiating down” the amount of the fine as is now often the case.

The group HI Good Neighbors, comprised of Oahu residents opposed to the proliferation of monster houses, applauded both bills. “Our group has been calling for stiffer penalties and better enforcement for monster homes for months,” group spokeswoman Christine Otto Zaa said Tuesday in a statement.

Otto Zaa said her group is puzzled that Bill 33, which would make the law clear that the city can order the demolition of structures constructed while under a stop-work order, is not on the agenda.

“Considering the egregious violations at the Date Street property, it’s clear more action is necessary to actually demolish the structure,” she said.

The bill was introduced by Council Planning Committee Chairman Ikaika Anderson, who has voiced displeasure that his proposal has not been heard in the Zoning Committee. He has even held informational hearings in his own committee on the bill, drawing a written scolding from Martin for breaking protocol.

Anderson said Tuesday that even though his bill is still not being heard, he’s happy the issue is being taken up in the Zoning Committee. It’s unfair that others need to follow the law and wait their turn for permits while others are ignoring them, he said.

Pine denied political reasons for not hearing Anderson’s bill. DPP officials have stated repeatedly that they already have the authority to order demolition of building and zoning code violators, she said. “It doesn’t do anything new,” she said.