Honolulu City Council bill targets lying to get ‘monster home’ permit

A measure meant to prohibit giving false statements to city planners as a means of cracking down on “monster homes” has drawn sharp criticism from some who say the language in the draft bill is too vague, too punitive and will lead to more waste in local government.

Bill 44 would “deter persons from making or inciting the making of a false statement to a public servant,” largely with regard to plans and permits issued by the city Department of Planning and Permitting for residential building projects.

Co-introduced by Honolulu City Council Chair Tommy Waters and Council member Tyler Dos Santos-­Tam, Bill 44 also offers definitions. Those include things like “city officials,” which under this measure means “any city employee who, in the normal course of the employee’s duties and responsibilities, conducts investigations or inspections, or both, to ascertain compliance with any city ordinance, rule, or regulation.”

And the draft measure defines a “false statement” to mean “any statement, in oral, written, printed, or electronic form, that is incorrect, inaccurate, or not in accordance with truth or fact.”

Bill 44 also comes with penalties.

Those found in violation of knowingly making false statements to DPP could face a $2,000 fine, one year in prison or 80 hours of community service, the draft measure states.

Despite objections, the Honolulu City Council last week voted 8-0 — with Council member Andria Tupola absent — to advance the measure on first reading.

Those against Bill 44 submitted oral and written testimony, with most objecting to the overall vagueness of the language — in part because the bill, as written, does not actually mention DPP by name.

“My concern is that it could have unintended consequences,” resident Dani Tow told the Council on July 12, adding the bill’s use of terms like “city official” were ambiguous. “That could apply to anybody — that could apply to City Council, community liaisons.”

Resident Karin O’Mahony told the Council the bill was unnecessary and wasteful.

“I think that it’s going to cost taxpayers’ money in every direction, (and) I think it’s punitive,” she said. “And I think we have a lot of things that we need to address. Monster homes, if that’s the intent of this, needs to be addressed, but this isn’t the solution.”

The solution, she added, was for DPP to do its “due diligence before you issue the permits.”

But Bill 44 did have its proponents.

“The American Institute of Architects, Honolulu Chapter, is in support of this measure,” AIA Executive Vice President Julia Fink wrote in her public testimony to the Council. “We are pleased to see action taken to inhibit the rule-breaking of a few instead of increasing limiting measures that affect the whole.”

Still, others in the building industry were critical of Bill 44 as drafted.

“We agree that knowingly lying to a city official should be an offense, however, the definition would not allow for any unintentional errors or alterations,” Max Lindsey, government relations committee chair for the Building Industry Association of Hawaii, wrote in his testimony.

Lindsey added that “the inclusion of the ‘incite’ definition is extremely unclear. It would seem that it is intended to deter bribery, however, it could also mean that someone who is simply ‘asking’ a city inspector a question could be in violation. Additionally, we would suggest that government officials should also be held to the same standards.”

In recent weeks and months, Honolulu’s fight against illegal “monster house” projects has intensified.

The day before the Council meeting, on July 11, DPP officially announced the immediate suspension of contractor Shih Jen Lin’s review privileges over plans submitted for 4103 Pakolu Place in Kaimuki and 2939 Kalei Road in Manoa. They were not in compliance with a chapter of the city’s Revised Ordinances of Honolulu, or the “monster home” ordinance, the city says.

DPP also revoked the building permits for both projects.

In April, third-party reviewer Jimmy Wu submitted plans for a Kalihi project at 1532 Hanai Loop.

Under that project, the two-story home’s plans — including the construction of nine bathrooms and no yard — suggested the planned construction of a monster home, though the plans were still approved.

DPP halted that project and suspended Wu, a local architect, from his third-party registration.

Densely packed monster homes — which critics say are akin to apartment buildings that push out residents and benefit developers, ruin neighborhoods and overwhelm existing infrastructure — have been an issue on Oahu for years. Likewise, the Council for years has tried to crack down on monster homes through introduction and passage of various legislation.

Dos Santos-Tam last week defended his piece of legislation, which he said relates to existing state law — Hawaii Revised Statutes 701-1063, passed in 2019 — that deals with “unsworn falsification to authorities” and has been used against other types of housing violations, including illegal vacation rentals.

“DPP’s enforcement ability has been hampered by people who willingly lie to inspectors who come to inspect and verify compliance with the law,” he said. “Monster homes, as we know, have been a safety issue all throughout my district …because the people submitting the plans made false statements, they made false depictions on their plans.”

And he disagreed with critics who believed Bill 44 was a “waste of time.”

“You know what’s also a waste of time? When the DPP inspectors show up with a set of plans that has nothing to do with what’s actually being built,” he said. “And so what we need to do is to get to the source of this, which is the architects and engineers and, to some extent, the third-party reviewers … who continually make false statements, who continually mislead inspectors, and this is again based on something that is already in state law so (to) concerns about overreach here, it’s already in state law.”

Prior to Bill 44 passing its first of three readings, Dos Santos-Tam noted the measure would return to the committee level to make its language clearer and more direct.

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Honolulu Star-Advertiser staff writer Mark Ladao contributed to this report.