The state Board of Land and Natural Resources fined two homeowners Friday for reconstruction work on state land to improve oceanfront amenities for their residences.
BLNR imposed the bigger of the two fines — $15,000 — against homeowners who rebuilt a pier extending into Kaneohe Bay, a conservation district, without approval.
David, Jennifer and Deandrea Pham also were ordered not to use the rebuilt pier until they apply for and receive an after-the-fact conservation district use permit for the work as well as an easement to legitimize their use of the pier, built on submerged state land in the late 1950s.
The Phams had sought an easement for the pier from the Department of Land and Natural Resources in 2018. Generally, the agency grants easements for such structures built before rules were established to prohibit their initial construction. But in this case DLNR held off because of an unresolved city violation against the Phams for an unpermitted retaining wall.
The pier and wall issues existed before the Phams bought the home on Springer Place in 2017 for $1.8 million.
DLNR’s board said the enforcement case over reconstructing the pier in 2019 with new pilings and decking was straightforward because the Phams needed a permit but didn’t get one, and so the maximum allowed fine was imposed despite the Pham’s request for a reduction.
“We think it’s excessive,” Jennifer Pham said.
During the board’s Friday hearing, Pham acknowledged that the house, which city records show recently underwent an estimated $2 million renovation, is a vacation rental managed by her daughter and not registered with the city, but reserved for 30-day periods.
A listing on Airbnb advertises the 6,000-square-foot home for $2,040 a night and allows guests to pay for fewer than 30 days.
In the other case, the BLNR fined the owner of a $10 million mansion on the slopes of Diamond Head $4,465 for replacing concrete stairs descending onto the beach without approval.
Like the Phams, the owner of the Diamond Head home, a company controlled by Corine Hayashi, sought an easement for the encroachment onto state land that provides convenient access to the beach from the home built in 1967. DLNR normally would grant such an easement, but didn’t in this case because Hayashi lacked an easement over a neighboring homeowner’s property to access the steps.
Hayashi, daughter of late local hotel developer Herbert T. Hayashi, nonetheless hired contractor Sea Engineering Inc. to replace steps that had broken off between a retaining wall and the beach.
In the midst of reconstruction work, which began in March and involved excavation of the beach to pour a foundation with metal bar reinforcements, DLNR learned of the work and ordered that it stop and be undone.
Sea Engineering began corrective action four days later and finished four days after that because of a weather delay.
DLNR recommended a $5,000 base fine, $465 for administrative enforcement costs and an additional $8,000 a day for the time it took to complete corrective action. However, a DLNR land manager recommended that the daily fine be assessed against Hayashi, her company and Sea Engineering for a total of $24,000.
The board didn’t accept the rationale of fining more than one party and reduced the daily penalty to four days. Also, DLNR said the $5,000 base fine was mistakenly recommended under a section of law not applicable to the case. So the total fine was adjusted to $4,465.
Doug Chin, a former Hawaii attorney general representing Hayashi, apologized to DLNR and its board.
“We’re ready to pay the fine,” he said.
Chin also said Hayashi is hopeful of obtaining an easement from her neighbor, who sued Hayashi’s company last year over a driveway dispute, so that Hayashi can seek and receive an easement for the stairs and apply to rebuild them.
DLNR report on Kaneohe pier by Honolulu Star-Advertiser
DLNR on Diamond Head stairs by Honolulu Star-Advertiser
