Denby Fawcett: Laie Beach Developer Fined for Commencing Work Without Permit

The Honolulu Department of Planning and Permitting has issued two violation warnings to Hawaii Reserves Inc. for conducting construction work without a permit for its proposed project to build 74 rental homes on a beachfront plot it owns in Laie.

HRI is the land management division of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

In a column earlier this month, I reported on the proposed development of Laie Beach. (I am a member of a club that owns property along the same Laie shoreline, but the club is not involved in the development.)

At the time, HRI President Eric Beaver said the project was still in its early stages and the company was applying for multiple permits, including an environmental impact statement and a special management area permit, before it could begin work.

But the city planning department served HRI with a notice on July 17, alleging that it had proceeded prematurely by developing part of the coastal land without a permit from the SMA, and had also carried out unauthorised clearing work on a road leading to the proposed development.

In a notice, DPP fines HRI for removing trees and vegetation. The notice requires HRI to cease all work on that property until it receives an SMA permit, otherwise it could be fined up to $100,000 initially and up to $10,000 per day thereafter.

A second violation notice accuses HRI of clearing approximately 16,305 square feet of land that is part of a road widening project without a permit. DPP says HRI must obtain a permit for the road widening by August 25 or pay an initial fine of $50 and $25 per day thereafter.

Faye Fukuyama, a resident of Laie, told Civil Beat on June 24 that HRI had begun work to double the 3-meter-long road, which is jointly owned by her family, HRI and other owners.

“They were just going about their business in our lane without our permission,” Fukuyama said. “We called the police when the backhoes and a digger started pulling up plants and were about to cut down a plumeria tree that my father-in-law had planted more than 50 years ago.”

She has lived along the road for 49 years with her husband Dane, the postman for the Laie area.

The Fukuyamas and Connie Tamura, another co-owner of the road, then hired Honolulu attorney William Saunders Jr. to write a letter urging HRI to stop removing the vegetation.

Fukuyama said Friday that she was glad HRI had to stop work on the road. She said she felt vindicated because HRI’s Director of Property Management Kanani Tuala had sent her and the other road owners a letter on June 10 stating that HRI had a permit to proceed with the road widening.

“We now have evidence that this was not true,” Fukuyama said.

Beaver, the president of HRI, told Civil Beat in an email: “We have worked directly with DPP on this project, both well in advance of and during the work. DPP requires the construction of the road and approved those construction plans in April. The vegetation removal work was completed within the limits allowed by city ordinances. While we are quite surprised by these announcements, we will continue to work with the city to clarify and resolve these issues.”

DPP spokesman Curtis Lum said that although DPP had approved HRI’s construction plans, the company still needed a permit to begin the roadworks, a permit the company did not have.. He said Friday that the department is still trying to determine whether the two parcels in question should be considered part of HRI’s larger project and whether SMA permits are required.

In an earlier interview, Beaver described HRI’s project as beachfront rental housing for working-class individuals and families with smaller households, primarily from Koolauloa, an area stretching from Kaaawa to Waimea Bay.

The development, called NaHale Manai, is distinctly unusual. It may be the first project of its kind in Hawaii, an oceanfront development designed specifically for middle-class families to live there.

Normally, a landowner would transform such a rare stretch of open coastline into luxury homes for the wealthy, rather than rental properties that would be expensive for firefighters and teachers.

“Families want to raise their children where they were raised,” Beaver said in the previous interview. “With this development, more families and individuals can have a roof over their heads.”

Saunders, the attorney representing the owners of the adjacent parcels, said Friday that he is pleased that DPP has responded to neighbors’ concerns about the project and that the city will seriously consider HRI’s plan to transform Laie’s bucolic shoreline into dozens of homes.

He added that HRI should be ordered by DPP to stop work on two plots of land it is developing adjacent to the larger project until those plots also receive SMA permits.

HRI says the two parcels in question do not require an SMA permit and are not part of the company’s rental housing project. The scope of work to be done on them does not require an SMA permit.