KAPAA — Plans to expand the Hoku building into a senior housing project has some tenants crying foul over conditional leases and permit violations. The Hoku building has 13 commercial units. A planned expansion to include a second building would
KAPAA — Plans to expand the Hoku building into a senior housing project has some tenants crying foul over conditional leases and permit violations.
The Hoku building has 13 commercial units. A planned expansion to include a second building would add 26 more residential units on the former lumber yard property at 4585 Lehua Street in downtown Kapaa.
It would include green initiatives, such as photovoltaic energy, smart card rooms, bike racks and Zip car rentals as convenient transportation alternatives to owning a car.
It would not be an assisted living facility, said Jack Young, project developer and building owner with Jack and Patsy Young Rentals. There will be on-call medical services but no resident nurse hours.
“It is simply an out-of-the-box approach for those seniors who believe 60 is the new 50,” Young said. “It is near the city core and people can walk and not feel isolated in some out-of-the-way place where they have to catch a bus. It is close to the beach and the bike trail.”
The holistic setting would include a fitness center with trainers, yoga and Pilates classes, massage therapists and health classes.
The Hoku building is zoned for ground floor and general commercial. The ground floor tenant, Hoku Natural Foods, operates with a no-construction clause until its lease expires on April 1, 2015.
“We plan to begin construction the next day,” Young said.
Young is director of Young Management and Ridgeway Rentals, a 30-year-old foreign Limited Liability, Limited Partnership that was formed in Colorado and registered in Hawaii as a rental unit firm. Major projects include Ridgeway Rentals and Kapaa Town Lofts, along with Koro Sun Resort and Rainforest Spa in Fiji and Chipeta Sun Lodge and Spa in Colorado.
Young said he paid $13,000 for a zoning permit for the 13 commercial units to remain occupied until the conversion. He is seeking $26,000 to finance zoning fees for the additional 26 residential units.
“We have no intention to seek any form of government subsidy,” Young said. “This project will be privately financed.”
Young, who is in Fiji, plans to be on island in March to complete the permitting process for the additional building. A preliminary bid was emailed to the county on Friday.
County spokeswoman Mary Daubert said the Housing Agency received a recent phone call regarding the proposed senior housing. The representative, she said, was asked to send a formal proposal.
Building background
Four building permits were issued by the county for work at the Hoku building since 2007. A $100,000 permit in 2008 allowed for a commercial addition and valuation.
In 2009, a permit allowed for a $278,300 conversion of a commercial structure into five or more apartment units. Since then, the residents have had a live-work agreement that was designed as a quick fix until the senior housing project could move forward.
The upper floors were approved as hybrid “live-work” under county Special Management Area A zoning permits, Young said. This “Green living” zoning, he explained, is popular around the county as a way for people to live and work without the need for vehicles.
“There are only a few such zonings on Kauai,” Young said. “We are trying to keep the building and expand it.”
The upper units include an acupuncturist, a mattress salesman and others who understood the transitional setting, Young said.
Still, he said some were sub-renting to families and this did not conform to the agreement.
The Hoku building, Daubert said, was never permitted for residential use.
The county Planning Department issued a violation notice that resulted in a fine and required the building’s owner to submit a compliance plan application to the Building Division to reflect any changes necessary for residential use.
“The applicant has not yet corrected several design deficiencies, so the application is still outstanding,” Daubert said.
Tenants reported receiving a 90-day eviction notice in March 2013, but were told weeks later they could stay. New lease agreements were then issued three months later, said Jason Asher, an occupant who left, citing building violations and confrontations with an on-site building manager.
“The landlord was letting us live in a commercial building that is unsafe,” Asher said.
Young said he let the tenants out of their leases and returned their money, despite the unacceptable conditions they left the units. He said the occupants were not paying rent and left, telling everyone they were living in a death trap and being bombarded with radio waves.
Health concerns
Asher and another tenant said they left the building when health concerns they attributed to the cellphone towers persisted. The tower is just five feet above Asher’s loft, and Asher said his wife’s migraines, sleep loss and flu-like symptoms began to improve several weeks after they moved out.
The second tenant, who did not wish to be named, said she shared the unit with her boyfriend and her teenage son. She left with concerns about long-term exposure from the cellphone tower.
The Planning Department issued a building electrical permit on Feb. 9, 2009, to allow Coral Wireless LLC to install $75,000 worth of cellphone equipment, antennas, cabinets and mobile equipment. The federal Telecommunications Act of 1996 states that cell towers cannot be denied based on radio frequency concerns, Daubert said.
Young said the roof of the property was sold to American Tower as an easement for the cellphone equipment in 2008. This was done, he said, at a time when tenant shops were clearing out in the months following the collapse of the economy.
“I sold the roof to keep the building,” Young said. “American Tower owns it and they come and go as they please. I have nothing to say about it.”
The controversy started more recently with the 4G upgrade, he said. The three dimensional array is more noticeable and alarmed some tenants when it actually provides the same signal strength with less power, he said.
The providers used omnidirectional antennas in the early days of cellular broadcasting, he added. The 4G array is a horizontal umbrella system that uses less intense VHF frequencies made available by the Federal Communications Commission. Sprint measures radio frequency strength in compliance with FCC safety standards, he said.
“I am not naive enough to think that the government protects us from all harm, but I do know there are obligations and compliance checks on a regular basis,” he said.
