Council bill seeks to ease permit restrictions for ag lot owners

[terracore]

So, just to be clear, the county's basically saying it's either overpriced housing or a homeless camp, and there's no middle ground?

Seems kind of extreme to me. Why don't we vote for people with better ideas? Or is it Brawndo time?

This bill does seem to offer some improvement, but not for housing.

[HiloJulie]

Well, after seeing the pictures from the link HOTPE posted as well as the pics from the link Ferret posted, and then pulling up the County Tax records - it appears the property is on .2199 acres (that's POINT 2199) and shows a covered porch at 896 square feet, main dwelling at 336 square feet and a porch at 48 square feet.

I am confused as to which pictures from the two links provided are the most current?

At any event, the view is nice!

[Punaperson]

I agree with much of what punikahakaferret advocates for different building code rules/permits, but I think one aspect is glossed over - how is the sewage dealt with?  While mentioning incinerating and composting toilets in one quick sentence, this can and will be a huge problem. If someone is willing to bend/break the rules for fire/electric/structural integrity standards, will sanitation codes be followed ?

Some people will probably remember that I've brought up the issue of sewage before - it comes from a bad situation encountered in the early days of living here.  A person moved onto the lot next door, and was using a bucket for his toilet, emptying it into a lava crack down a bit from his tent.  He said he was looking for a lava tube for more 'permanent' disposal of his waste.  Move forward several months and the rainy season started, causing his temporary lava crack to turn into an overflowing stream.  I won't go into further details of the disgusting aftermath. 

A roof and walls are a start, but living in a community has to include respect for others in the community.  When I first moved to the Big Island in the early 1980's, there were approximately 6,000 people in all of Puna - now there are over 60,000. To paraphrase a common saying - your freedom to build what you want stops at the point where I have to deal with your (literal) shit.

[Durian Fiend]

Not wishing to post in haste, I had to think over my reaction after seeing the photos of the permitted (or unpermitted, or not finaled) house in Milolii, link in my previous post.

The County, in this case, may have a point.  What’s left to be remodeled, really?  It’s a few 2x4’s, 4x8 sheets, and metal roofing exposed to the salt for years.

Oh my.   Yes, I agree.   The only way to proceed with that "house" is to tear down the remnants and start over.

[leilanidude]

Property Tax

he hasn't paid the property tax in 3 years, so no wonder why they are coming down on him.

[punikahakaiferret]

Mea culpa...looks like I have egg on my face (or maybe tofu?)
I read "tofu block" and thought it humorously fit the shape of the structure, not knowing the vernacular of foundations...that is, I presume cinder block, which I can imagine is not suitable here? (As opposed to slab or post-and-pier.) My bad! It's all good. Live and learn.

As to dumping sewage down lava tubes, as I have only just recently learned that is pretty much what passes as cesspools here and has for many, many years, that is absolutely deplorable; whether from a bucket or otherwise...given so many lava tubes are themselves burial sites or lead to burial sites. Just sickening. 

I don't find septic tanks much better, at their base. Combining anything and everything into a fetid sludge-pool and hoping it somehow magically filters its way thru mostly solid lava rock and is pure and clean?  I say doubtful...it is all still ending up in the environment, and ultimately the water. 

As I have read, properly designed dry toilets should either use constructed and maintained compost heap/pile systems, or multiple curing buckets, as described in "The Humanure Handbook". Vermiculture is also very effective at speeding up the process. 

Properly done, in time these produce compost, which is 100% safe to use on plants. 

Conversely, in exactly the same way baby and adult diapers (and even litter boxes and poo bags) are disposed of *properly*, waste can be sealed in a bag and disposed of with garbage. If you hear, "You can't throw *that* at the transfer station!" If they think that, where do they think all the diapers and Depends are going? There is no poop fairy for humans any more than there is for dogs...it doesn't just vanish.

It's true...this is how I spend a lot of my time...learning about alternative living styles and designs, and alternative waste systems. 

Think I've talked my own ear off in this reply as well as a few others here...sorry!

I'm probably also not a lot of fun at parties. Most would say I talk a lotta shit. :-D

Ok, gotta go! ;-) ...make coffee, that is!

[leilanidude]

This is what I found:

https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhom...7288999071

Still not that little "tofu block" (thanx, Obie!) that Leilanidude posted the street view link...

Google maps was incorrect although the house I pointed to is remarkably similar. I cross-referenced the address with the Hawaii County site and found it just a few lots over. Google street view does not make the turn to the right, it just stops at the intersection.

[Bilboaintgreat]

The house with the remnants and white rusted roof seems to be next door and seems to have been burnt a while ago!

This house is all built with electricity and septic too? Seems like stairs and deck newer too.



https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/202...ves-ahead/

[terracore]

Lawsuit over EPIC system moves ahead
Wednesday, January 15, 2025 12:05 am

This small, shorefront home in the Milolii Beach Lots subdivision is the focus of a lawsuit over the county’s Electronic Processing and Information Center (EPIC) building permitting system.

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By JOHN BURNETT Hawaii Tribune-Herald

Oral arguments have been scheduled in a lawsuit in which a Milolii homeowner is suing the county, alleging its Electronic Processing and Information Center system, known as EPIC, has trapped him in a permitting catch-22 that will allow him only to demolish his home — which is in a shoreline management area — not to remodel or live in it.

Legal counsel for Shahzaad Ausman, a principal of 88-129 KAI LLC, the plaintiff, and the county Corporation Counsel, representing the Board of Appeals and former Public Works Director Stephen Pause — who has since been succeeded by Hugh Ono — are set to make their cases before Third Circuit Chief Judge Wendy DeWeese at 2 p.m. Feb. 3 in Kona Circuit Court.

“I’ve spoken to the new mayor but nothing yet,” Ausman said Tuesday, referring to Mayor Kimo Alameda, who appointed Ono. “Nothing has trickled down, and it appears it’s heading for opening arguments.

“The opposing attorney hasn’t reached out, and I have heard nothing except ‘we are looking into it’ — quote.”

Ausman’s attorney, Patrick Wong, filed an opening brief asking the court to reverse the Board of Appeals’ affirmation of the Department of Public Works revocation of an alterations permit granted to the previous homeowner, two years after its issuance.

According to DPW, the revocation of the remodeling permit for the home at 88-129 Kai Ave. in Milolii Beach Lots is based on the expiration of a building permit issued in 1987 that was allegedly absent a final inspection of the shoreline cottage, which was completed in 1989.

“He’s confident about the case, obviously, or he probably wouldn’t have taken it,” Ausman said about Wong, a partner in the Kona office of Carlsmith Ball. “But when you go before the judge, it’s up to the judge. The best thing I could’ve hoped for is maybe the county would have tried to settle this before, given all the delays.

“We’re three years into this, now. But I haven’t heard from the county, and I’m disappointed. We’re so close to oral arguments, and I don’t even have a proposal for settlement. And what I’m worried about is they’re going to wait to the last minute and say ‘we need more time,’ postpone the hearing so we can go settle it, and then they don’t do anything.”

Wong’s arguments are that Ausman, who purchased the property for $275,000 on May 6, 2021, “reasonably relied on the validity of” the alterations permit issued in 2020, “as he received assurances from DPW that the permit remained valid and active as of July 2022.”

According to the brief, between June 2021 and September 2022, Ausman “expended $138,885 in renovation related finances, mortgage payments and related expenditures.”

The brief asserts that Ausman “will continue to experience substantial injury despite the due diligence exercised to confirm the existence and validity” of the 2020 permit.

“DPW should not be allowed to retroactively revoke a permit two years after its issuance on the basis that they could not locate the final inspection records” for the original 1987 permit, the document states.

“I hope they work on this and we don’t have to go to court and can settle this, because I think the solution would be simple. And that would be to honor the permit as it was,” said Ausman.

As of Tuesday, the Office of Corporation Counsel hadn’t filed its own brief in rebuttal. The Corporation Counsel, when asked for comment about the case in October, told the Tribune-Herald that it “does not comment on pending litigation.”

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

DPW should not be allowed to retroactively revoke a permit two years after its issuance on the basis that they could not locate the final inspection records” for the original 1987 permit

County can’t find their own records, so then revoke a subsequent permit they issued?
Most Hawai’i County thing ever?