The city is cracking down on what it says are illegal houselike buildings in a remote agricultural subdivision in the foothills of Kunia where residences are prohibited.
Inspectors with the city Department of Planning and Permitting issued several building permit violation notices last week to individual owners of structures in the subdivision called Kunia Loa Ridge Farmlands.
The enforcement action follows complaints made to the DPP last year over suspected illegal homes at Kunia Loa Ridge and two Honolulu Star-Advertiser stories last month that raised awareness of the situation.
However, the core issue of whether the structures are homes isn’t being addressed by the DPP, which governs zoning and building codes but claims that a 2-year-old state law has hindered its enforcement ability.
DPP inspectors issued most of the citations because the buildings don’t conform to what was approved for construction via building permit.
In four instances, two-story wooden structures — some possibly as big as 1,800 square feet with decks — were built when permits called for two shipping containers bridged by a roof.
Two violations were issued for the enclosing of what was supposed to be an unenclosed ground floor below an elevated single-level building. And one two-story structure was built with no permit.
DPP said through a spokesman that it can’t discuss the violations or any pending inspections because an investigation is ongoing.
More than 20 houselike structures can be seen at Kunia Loa, which was developed four years ago by converting 854 acres of fallow former sugar cane and pineapple land into a unique farm subdivision with 99 lots.
A hui of local investors doing business as C&C Farmlands LLC bought the land and marketed lots for sale to farmers for $40,000 to $60,000 per acre, or $200,000 to $300,000 for the smallest lots, covering five acres.
The sales were structured as leases, with the farmers buying shares in a nonprofit company that actually owns the land but gives buyers a proprietary right to 99-year lot leases that are renewable.
The co-op arrangement was done to take advantage of a 2006 state law that exempted leased agricultural land from county subdivision requirements, such as paved roads and sidewalks. A key provision of that law is that no dwellings are allowed. Kunia Loa leases also prohibit residences.
Another state law, enacted in 2012, exempted certain structures built on commercial farms and ranches from obtaining building permits as long as proper notice was provided to the city. Structures used for dwelling or lodging are expressly not exempted.
Raymond Iwamoto, a local attorney who represents C&C Farmlands, said the majority of Kunia Loa owners are hardworking farmers who have a sincere desire and dedication to farm or ranch and who have not built any illegal structures.
However, Iwamoto did raise concerns with the city in October about whether proper inspections of structures at Kunia Loa were being made to ensure no laws were being violated, including the prohibition against dwellings.
Iwamoto said in an interview Thursday that as far as he knows, no one is living at Kunia Loa, which is not connected to public water, power or sewer systems. Iwamoto also said the law against dwellings should be enforced.
"No dwellings are allowed, period," he said.
DPP Director George Atta said in a statement that the 2012 law, Act 114, made it difficult to enforce building permit regulations in part because the city has the burden of proof but is limited in its inspection power.
"A farm structure could be built that looks like a residential unit, but if it isn’t occupied, it would not be a violation of the law,"Atta said in the statement.
Atta added that the DPP can’t enter a structure without the owner’s permission. "To date, no owner has allowed us to inspect a structure that we suspect is a dwelling," he said. "We don’t know for a fact that people are living there, even though we may suspect that they are."
The citations issued by the city could put lot owners in violation of their leases with the co-op. However, Iwamoto said that those cited do have the opportunity to cure the violations. "We have to go through that process,"he said.
