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The number of building permit requests for large-scale houses on Oahu has grown in the last two months, according to an informal count provided by the city Department of Planning and Permitting. Read more

The number of building permit requests for large-scale houses on Oahu has grown in the last two months, according to an informal count provided by the city Department of Planning and Permitting.

In mid-October when the Honolulu City Council began to tackle complaints from residents that “monster houses” were becoming problematic in older neighborhoods like Kalihi, DPP said it had processed 23 applications for large-scale homes with eight or more bedrooms, what the department tentatively has used to define monster houses.

There have been 15 applications submitted since then, bringing the total to 44 as of Dec. 23, the department said.

This includes six that were received before October but had not been counted until now.

Of the 44 applications, 18 permits were issued, two have been approved but permits not yet issued, and 24 are “in review” or pending.

In mid-October, DPP reported 13 issued, two approved but not yet issued, and eight others in review.

Meanwhile, complaints have been growing and city inspectors have been ramping up on the enforcement end.

DPP reported that as of Thursday, its building inspection branch had created 65 requests for investigation in response to complaints generated in recent months.

In October, the department had reported it had closed investigations into complaints at large homes at 20 addresses islandwide, issuing violation notices for eight of them.

The department was criticized by Council members who said they believed the 20 addresses represented only a small fraction of the houses that needed investigation.

DPP officials, however, acknowledged last week that the 20 investigations involved large-scale houses that were subject to complaints dealing primarily with zoning code issues such as having too many unrelated dwellers under one roof or having more than one kitchen. City law says a house can carry five unrelated occupants, or one family (of unlimited size) and up to three other unrelated occupants.

The October list of 20 addresses did not include complaints about building violations often associated with large-scale houses such as lot coverage (a footprint of no more than 50 percent of the lot), height and setback infractions; not enough parking; not following approved plans; and doing work that required an additional permit.

The latest list includes investigations into all those potential infractions, DPP Acting Director Kathy Sokugawa said.

Planning officials told Council members in October that they had begun keeping track of large-scale houses only in January 2017, when inspectors began to notice a pattern. Prior to that, large-scale homes were not tracked or monitored.

Currently, “we believe we have accounted for a good percentage of these large houses, but we understand that we have missed some,” Sokugawa said in response to criticism that DPP has undercounted the number of potential violators.

DPP is looking into data management programs and software that may be able to help the department identify and track large homes, she said.

Councilman Trevor Ozawa, who represents East Honolulu, where a number of large-scale dwellings have sprouted, said the recent increase in building permit applications makes it clear that a moratorium needs to be put in place.

“This is exactly why I would be supportive of placing a moratorium on approving building permit applications for these ‘monster houses,’” Ozawa said, in a statement. “This will give the Council and the Department of Planning and Permitting time to work on a solution.”

Sokugawa said DPP and Mayor Kirk Caldwell also support a temporary halt to the issuing of permits for large-scale houses.

“We are asking the City Council to pass the bill that would place a moratorium on the so-called monster houses,” Sokugawa said. “That will help us come up with stricter policies that would place limits on these structures, and avoid adding more monster homes to the inventory while new regulations are prepared.”

Bill 110, which would place an immediate moratorium on the acceptance or approval of building applications for “new large detached dwellings,” is moving through the Council and likely will be heard by the Zoning and Transportation Committee sometime this month. The moratorium would be in place for two years or until the Council adopts new regulations on large-scale houses, whichever comes first.

On Dec. 6, the Council passed Resolution 17-276, which instructs DPP to come up with a bill restricting houses to no more than a certain size based on an as-yet-to-be-determined floor-to-area ratio, also known as density.

It would also place a to-be-determined limit on the number of wet bars per dwelling, and require each dwelling to have a minimum of two parking stalls for the first 2,500 feet and one extra stall for every additional 500 feet.

Caldwell told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that he supports upping the parking requirement and restricting density, but also wants to impose greater building setbacks and stricter limits on building height, as well as reduce the allowable footprint of a lot.

Ozawa said the proliferation of monster houses has taken a toll on communities in his district and that the city needs to act quickly.

“It is obvious that this is a very serious concern for many residents and I’m sure we can work expeditiously towards a solution with input from the community,” he said.