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The most effective strategy to protect residential neighborhoods with gardens from the insult of yet more outlaw monster houses, with concrete yards filled with parked cars, would be to raise the cost for scofflaws.
Authorize the city Department of Planning and Permitting to stop work and order removal of nonconforming uses and parts of the construction. Substantial fines would follow if the violations are not corrected by the deadline.
Both substantial fines and partial removal focused on correction of violations are needed. Mandated removal that is limited to nonconforming work done outside of what was shown on the approved building plans is similar to when a carpenter on a job site frames a doorway too narrow to fit Americans with Disabilities Act requirements and must remove and re-install the frame.
The Honolulu Chapter of the American Society of Architects also recommends this approach (“Increase fines for monster houses,” Star-Advertiser, Our View, Aug. 28).
Janet Thebaud Gillmar
Palolo Valley
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