Finally bought my lot!!!

[zoos47]

My wife and I just purchased a lot in HPP. We are so very excited!!!

Question: I plan to build a 576' detached garage and a 1000' package home from Argus. Would the county allow me to apply for the garage permit separately and build the garage first?

Logistically, this would be easiest for me as I will be travelling from Chicago, and my overall build timeline for both buildings will most likely exceed 3 years (I am under the impression that a building permit lasts 3 years).

If this plan will not work, does anyone know about extending a permit... fines, fees, process? Realistically, I think both buildings will take me 3-5 years.

Thanks in advance.
Scott

Scott

[kalakoa]

Short answer: commuting back and forth to the build will not really work, most likley with some kind of getting ripped off.

County treats "garage first" as an attempt to end-run the permitting requirements ... but the garage (as a "utility structure" of less than 600 square feet on ag-zoned land) may not require permits, so long as it doesn't have any plumbing or electrical.

Regular building permits don't really "expire" so long as progress does not lapse for more than 120 days -- Special Use permits typically have a completion due-date, which may be extended.

That said ... the County permitting/inspection process is a whimsical fairyland of magical rules and restrictions, to the point that it sometimes seems like Building and Planning are making stuff up as they go along.

For everything else, there's the Search function, all of these questions have happened before.

[zoos47]

Thx for the help!



Scott

[lquade]

yes, when i built i went over time line and building inspector just told me to call every 120 days. so you would apply for permits together and build your garage first. but the crime on the big island seems really incredibly high right now and i doubt if anything would be left on your return. some friends were on the mainland for 6 months and everything was gone, toilets, sinks, windows. they even took the shut-off valves which they didn't notice until they turned on their water... gone are the days when you can have a place empty... but congrats on your purchase and maybe instead of green harvest one day they can eradicate the rippers instead...

[terracore]

Our neighbors live nearby and are building a house even closer. Somebody ripped the steel roofing off after it was already installed. That took trucks, ladders, tools, time, several people... all kinds of stuff. If they couldn't stop the theft from a few blocks away, there is no way you are going to be able to do that from Chicago. The Paradise Tax takes many forms, dealing with an overwhelmed police department and an underwhelming prosecutor are two of them.

I remember a friend of mine did missionary work in Costa Rica, and she said the theft was so bad that when a business was installing an iron fence, they had to hire security guards to guard the fence posts until the concrete had set, otherwise they would have been stolen. When I was living in Alaska that really surprised me. Now it just seems like common sense.

I lived in a high-crime area in an inner city, literally next door to a crack house, hopefully your experiences in Chicago are better, but the crimes there made more sense. They would steal things from your house or car they could quickly convert to cash to get their next fix. Usually stuff they could run away with. We have that here too, but also people steal from your house....things they need to build and furnish a house. They will steal a tow truck, so that they can steal cars, so that they can use the stolen cars to smash gates in and steal from houses. (All of these have actually happened lately). The unattended lot with all those tempting building supplies (being stored or nailed together is irrelevant) is the lowest hanging fruit.

Maybe things will be better here in 3 years, but until then, wait before you spend any money on building your dream home. Until then, check out the Big Island Thieves facebook group so you can read the hysteria.

[zoos47]

Thank you terracore, lquade, and kalakoa.

Great to know the county will mostlikely work with me if/when I go over the 3 year allotment of the permit.

I will certainly take your warnings of theft very seriously.

I am hoping to explore ways one can can deter theft if forced to commute to building site. Here will be my current measures to deter theft.. any additional ideas welcome:
1) Build the garage first so I can lock up any supplies / tools.
2) Camp on the premises while framing / completing water tight shell.
3) Plan material deliveries around my scheduled project... only deliver materials I will need per scheduled trip.
4) ADT security system... purchase whatever package is best for my situation and have installed when garage is up.. motion lights, audio alarm, auto call to police, cell notification, auto reset, etc.
5) Make nice with all neighbors and ask to keep an eye on the lot. I actually bought the lot from the immediate neighbor. Have yet to meet them, but I dont think this will be a problem.
6) My first trip next month, I will be installing a field fence around the lot and planting trees (we bought a ripped/graded lot). Will probably hire contractor to install a gate.

I know most of these things on their own will not make the site 100% crime/theft proof, but I hope the combination of everything will decrease the risk substantially.


lquade... I know this really does not help my particular case too much, but just a small optimistic note: when we were researching HPP prior to our lot purchase, we looked at crime stats quite a bit. Researching the HPP neighborhood watch sites, they list a few stats on HPP crime: Crime type, location of crimes, crime frequency by the month and year, etc. Dates back to 2010. Based on their stats, crime has been dropping substantially since 2013. We were very happy to see this.

Thanks for the replies!
Scott

quote:

---

Originally posted by terracore

Our neighbors live nearby and are building a house even closer. Somebody ripped the steel roofing off after it was already installed. That took trucks, ladders, tools, time, several people... all kinds of stuff. If they couldn't stop the theft from a few blocks away, there is no way you are going to be able to do that from Chicago. The Paradise Tax takes many forms, dealing with an overwhelmed police department and an underwhelming prosecutor are two of them.

I remember a friend of mine did missionary work in Costa Rica, and she said the theft was so bad that when a business was installing an iron fence, they had to hire security guards to guard the fence posts until the concrete had set, otherwise they would have been stolen. When I was living in Alaska that really surprised me. Now it just seems like common sense.

I lived in a high-crime area in an inner city, literally next door to a crack house, hopefully your experiences in Chicago are better, but the crimes there made more sense. They would steal things from your house or car they could quickly convert to cash to get their next fix. Usually stuff they could run away with. We have that here too, but also people steal from your house....things they need to build and furnish a house. They will steal a tow truck, so that they can steal cars, so that they can use the stolen cars to smash gates in and steal from houses. (All of these have actually happened lately). The unattended lot with all those tempting building supplies (being stored or nailed together is irrelevant) is the lowest hanging fruit.

Maybe things will be better here in 3 years, but until then, wait before you spend any money on building your dream home. Until then, check out the Big Island Thieves facebook group so you can read the hysteria.

---

Scott

[lquade]

yes a good relationship with your immediate neighbors is the absolute best. then the fence and gate. what i learned (from police) is always keep your gate the same. either open or shut once you are living here. some people every time they go out they leave their gate open then close it upon their return. this is like a flag..."oh i'm off for the day.." i always keep my gate locked and locked from the inside as if i returned and locked myself in. i don't know if its luck but 40 years in, and never had a problem with the house. i do know my neighbors and have good ones and we are all home most of the time which also helps too. when you get here, next is a dog, your early warning system. i think the police are trying to do something with their new task force and i also think mitch roth just lost any hope of re-election telling people it was just media hysteria. at least they seem to be pulling them off the streets rapidly lately. anyway best of luck to you and enjoy the island.

[terracore]

One suggestion for your garage, if you are going to have windows frame it that way but don't install them until you get here, just put the siding over it and you can cut it out after you get here. You can also do that with a pedestrian door, leaving only the roll-up door as an entrance. That really only gives you one entry alarm component to install. I would consider skipping the motion detectors because they have the highest rates of false alarms, you don't need to stress out about false alarms because geckos or spiders are on your sensors. Though, it is possible to get systems that alert your phone if the motion detectors go off but don't summon the police. Most alarm systems allow you to add an IP camera for about a hundred bucks. If your alarm goes off you can get live footage from your phone within a few seconds (assuming your camera has access to wifi). Lquade's gate advice is spot on. Also, literally the same day we moved in here one of the neighbors came over and suggested that we always park the cars behind the house so nobody can ever tell if a vehicle is home or not from the street.

They also sell game cameras that SMS their pics to email or phone #. We had one with a solar panel. It worked good but it takes a lot of tinkering to get it where the camera doesn't false alarm on motion and drain the batteries beaming back pics of an empty lot, and the settings that worked in the winter didn't always work in the summer. They do have ones now that will send you pics on demand as well.

[EightFingers]

ADT isn't on this side of the Big Island. I used to have them on the mainland and I would have been happy to continue with them here. Not sure if they're in Kona, never really paid attention.

[dayna]

Disregard crime stats from your research. Trust me on this one. I was looking at the puna report for the 16th to the 30th of July and several break in's, car thefts, etc were not on their list. Crime is NOT dropping in the area. The reporting of the crime might be dropping due to a variety of factors, the statistical reporting is obviously inaccurate.

I strongly urge you to join the facebook group big Island thieves, and the HPP next door facebook group. You'll get a better idea of what the crime is really like.

Dayna

www.E-Z-Caps.com