City Planning Department Considers Potential Violations at Marconi Point

_{Above photo: This stretch of vegetation at Marconi Point was known to be a robust habitat for endangered Hawaiian yellow-faced bees. The top photo, taken in 2022, shows what it used to look like before unauthorized clearing occurred this past October. The bottom photo was taken last month.}

Last month, Environment Hawaiʻi reported on a notice of violation issued in October by the state Department of Land and Natural Resources regarding the razing of protected bee and bird species habitat along the coastline at Marconi Point on Oʻahu’s North Shore.

A representative of the owner of nearly three dozen acres within the 100-acre Marconi Point Condominiums property has stated that management is working with the DLNR on mitigation for the alleged violations that include fence building, tree removal, vegetation clearing, and the spreading of mulch in the Conservation District.

As of late November, the City & County of Honolulu Department of Planning and Permitting was in the process of preparing a notice of violation for unauthorized grubbing just mauka of the Conservation District.

The entire condominium parcel is located within the Special Management Area. According to DPP director Dawn Takeuchi Apuna, the draft notice does not include a SMA violation.  “It looks to be a grubbing violation and stop work order, but until it’s issued this is all unofficial/pending,” she stated in an email.

Outside of the SMA, a grubbing violation could incur a fine of $1,000 or imprisonment for up to a year, if the city chooses to prosecute the case in criminal court. Otherwise — or in addition to the criminal penalties — the DPP’s director could issue an order requiring the responsible party to pay a fine of up to $5,000 for each day the violation occurs.

Within the SMA, city ordinances prohibit development without an approved SMA permit. Among other things, development includes removing or extracting any materials, as well as changing the ecology of an area.

Anyone who violates the city’s SMA rules is subject to a civil fine of up to $100,000 plus $10,000 for each day the violation persists.

The DPP has for years been insisting that the unit owners at Marconi Point need to apply for a SMA permit to cover the planned development there. Companies tied to the developer, however, are fighting the city in federal court on that. A pretrial conference has been set for December 21.

Because the vegetation cleared in early October was known to be a robust habitat for endangered Hawaiian yellow-faced bees, the CPR owners may also be subject to fines for violating the Endangered Species Act.

No federal critical habitat has been established for the bees, but killing endangered species — which almost certainly occurred when the shrubs the bees inhabited were run over by bulldozers and mulched — is still a violation of the ESA. Knowingly killing an endangered species can incur a fine of up to $61,982 or imprisonment for up to a year. The accidental killing of an endangered species can incur fines of just $1,566.

Environment Hawaiʻi did not learn by press time whether the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service would be pursing penalties for the habitat clearing that had been done.

— Teresa Dawson