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Just got my Property Tax bill. On a one acre vacant lot, tax bill is $341.77. Also received my HPP Road Assessment bill, $328.00.
Road assessments are out of control! At this rate I will soon be paying MORE for non-access to the vacant land than the property tax on it.
It is time to get together and demand that the county take over this poorly run, out of control operation. Even the County of Hawaii should be able to do a better job than our Board.
I have complained for the last three months that there has been no right of way maintenance (grass cutting, tree trimming on Association land) or any communication from the Association to HELCO and phone/cable companies about tree overgrowth The only maintenance I see is that done by individual property owners.
I live on a paved road, but when I bought here it was unpaved. I had no expectation of the road being paved, but I expect at the time it was paved that someone with influence lived on this street.
Summary: price goes up, service goes down. What can we do? Suggestions?
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time to get together and demand that the county take over
County cannot accept dedication of any roadway which does not meet the minimum standards; in addition to the obvious paved surface, these require a 50-foot right-of-way, which means that most (if not all) "private" subdivision roads cannot ever be dedicated.
County can, however, create a Local Improvement District if the landowners petition for creation of one; LID improvements are with a bond secured by the land, with payments added to the property tax bill. As far as I can tell, LID improvements are not limited by other County rules, so there is no requirement that the roads be 24-foot paved surface on a 50-foot easement.
Other options include lawsuits, replacing the Board, or forum whinging, but these are unlikely to be effective. There's also moving out of HPP -- not only are there functional subdivisions, there are also lots which don't have a subdivision at all.
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kalakoa: thanks for your input. The elephant in the room is that the County illegally approved this and similar lots. Should they not be held accountable and required to accept responsibility for their malfeasance? I understand that originally sales of these lots was intended as a "Florida Swamp Land" deal; no-one was actually expected to live here, but as the saying goes, 'karma's a b*tch'.
BTW, I love where I live, just don't want to be forced out by the actions of an incompetent Board.
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Could have been more....
Puna: Our roosters crow first
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County illegally approved this and similar lots. Should they not be held accountable
Ideally, the subdivisions would unite and file a big lawsuit.
Unfortunately, they're all too busy with their own separate issues; each seems to believe that they're the only ones affected -- somehow the fault is entirely mismanagement/malfeasance of their individual HOAs, and the problem can be fixed with by replacing management and/or creating a new HOA.
Realistically, County can never afford to take over all the "private agricultural" subdivision roads unless we're all willing to pay 10x the property taxes. Part of the problem here is that County requires a "road" to be at least a 24-foot paved surface on a 50-foot right of way, which is neither necessary nor desirable for most residents.
Ideally, the big class-action lawsuit would also force County to define some additional types of "road" that would be reasonably priced. I would gladly pay a few hundred dollars a year for 10-foot graded gravel with mowed shoulders, but County can't/won't do it, and my "private" road maintenance only happens near property owned by its board members -- fortunately the dues are entirely optional.
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mikewj, try and check out the HPP Road Maintenance and HPP Biz threads. There's some information there. Mermaid does a decent job posting current stuff. The general manager's not doing his job. There was a vote to remove him at the last general membership meeting. The board won't fire him. He's a big part of the problems in here. Can't fix the road problems if they won't fire the general manager.
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I am just curious; do all Current County roads have 24 feet of pavement and a 50 ft right of way? Were they that way when the County acquired them?
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A legal precedent was set down in Vacationland. The county was using newer rules about setback and when this subdivision was approved the rules were different.
I'm sure the same thing would apply to the roads.
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quote:
Originally posted by BillyB
I am just curious; do all Current County roads have 24 feet of pavement and a 50 ft right of way? Were they that way when the County acquired them?
There are hundreds of miles of county roads that do not meet the "standard". I don't know if any of those roads were approved after the standards were set, but all of the Puna subdivision roads were.
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Originally posted by mikewj
Just got my Property Tax bill. On a one acre vacant lot, tax bill is $341.77. Also received my HPP Road Assessment bill, $328.00.
Road assessments are out of control!
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We're lucky it wasn't raised 10% again. The FC recommended around 2%. If Dist 2, 4 and 8 had it their way, it would've been 10%. It was a long debate. Dist 5 and 7 reps put up a sensible argument...that the roads and easement maint is behind, therefore people will be very unhappy if they raised it to 10% again. Dist 2 rep very annoyed, motioned for almost 5% minimum, motion passed.
