OHA trustee’s Kahaluu residents have charged that Office of Hawaii Affairs trustee Clayton Hee circumvented city building codes on his 1.8-acre residential property.
homestead causes
ruckus in Kahaluu
But the city inspected his property
and said he is in compliance
By Leila Fujimori
lfujimori@starbulletin.com"I expect more of a Hawaiian leader," said neighbor Wayne Wahineokai. "We need someone who is upright."
Wahineokai and other Uakea Place residents say Hee is stabling a horse, has built a five-stall barn large enough for 10 horses and is completing a studio home, which he misrepresented as a storage shed - all of which they say is prohibited on land zoned for residential use.
But the city Department of Planning and Permitting investigated the neighbors' complaints in May and found Hee to be in compliance with building codes.
"We consider everything closed at this point," said city Planning Director Randall Fujiki.
Hee and his wife, Lynne Waters, live in an Ahuimanu subdivision, which they say borders on land zoned for preservation, country and conservation use.
The allegations arose because "one neighbor has a particular interest in my life," said Hee, who has said he will run for lieutenant governor as a Democrat.
"I don't ask anybody for special treatment," he said.
"He's politically connected by the system," said Wahineokai, noting Hee's legislative and OHA careers. The system is also at fault because it allowed him to commit the alleged violations, he claimed.
In July, Waters went before the Kahaluu Neighborhood Board about a proposed change of zoning to country for the back acre of their property to preserve the open space and be consistent with zoning of adjacent properties.
Board members unanimously supported the rezoning after Waters told them neighbors were amenable to the idea.
But Chairman Daniel Bender said they would have voted against the proposal if they had known Waters and Hee had not contacted all their neighbors.
Dick Halverson, a neighborhood board member and Hee's next-door neighbor, said the board was unaware of a horse stable.
"He doesn't need five stalls for one horse," Halverson said. "I think he'd like a bunch of horses." He objects to the smell and flies of a barnyard.
"We try to follow the rules, and sometimes people know how to play the game," Bender said.
Thirteen neighbors say if he gets the area rezoned as country, Hee, a horseman active in rodeo for more than 20 years, will be permitted to have more horses and turn part of his property into a rodeo arena.
Hee said he has no such intention and feels he is being singled out.
Neighbors never objected to the property's previous landowners' horses or structures, he said.
"If neighbors do not prefer it down-zoned to country, then fine, we'll keep it residential," Hee said.
Although Hee violated the building code in 1996 for not having a permit to enclose a patio and for not having the location of the animal shed on the plans, he has corrected matters.
Next-door neighbor Anna Camenson said Hee is trying "to circumvent the law" by building first, then correcting violations later.
Neighbors say Hee built a cottage with an attached garage as a storage shed, which has a bathtub, toilet and kitchen sink.
As long as the building remains unoccupied, the shed is legal, Fujiki said. Hee said he intends to use the structure for his wife's office, and will apply for a use change when he is ready.
Neighbors complain the 60-foot-by-28-foot stable violates a city ordinance that requires an animal shed be located 300 feet from a property line.
Hee said three Hawaiian Humane Society inspectors have OK'd the location of the stable, but acknowledged that the stable is within 300 feet of the property line.
Another investigator was sent out on Aug. 11.
The agency's director would not comment on ongoing investigations.
The residents say Hee is also violating their subdivision association's covenants contained in their deeds, which specifically forbid keeping livestock and building structures other than one single-family dwelling, of which Hee said he was unaware.
Wahineokai said, "It's never too late to go to the neighbors and discuss it and come to an amicable decision, because we're all neighbors."
Office of Hawaiian Affairs
