OCEAN VIEW — County inspectors have been checking out homes, shops and shacks in Hawaiian Ocean View Ranchos for compliance with building codes.
It’s not unusual for the Public Works Building Division to receive a complaint about an individual residence — that’s what typically triggers an inspection.
But residents worry that the visits are just the beginning as word spreads that the county has received a map of the subdivision with 96 lots circled. Those are the homes that an unidentified complainant believes are out of line with county codes.
Mats Fogelvik got a visit from building, plumbing and electrical inspectors last week. He’s fairly certain a citation is coming, since he temporarily uses a large steel woodworking shop as his residence and also has an unpermitted shack on his property.
“It’s sad,” he said. “I’m just trying to live my life. In Ocean View, everyone has something unpermitted on their property.”
Deputy Building Division Chief Jai Chong confirmed the site inspections and receipt of the map.
But the map alone isn’t actionable, because the county requires the complainant to provide a tax map key number and the specific code violation before it investigates. That information wasn’t supplied with the map, but 10 other complaint letters do contain the necessary information for as many properties, and the county is now acting on those complaints as required by law, building officials said. No citations had been issued as of Friday.
One resident, who has been visited by a trio of county inspectors, is worried that whoever wrote the letters won’t stop until they’ve placed successful complaints on all 96 properties. The county can require that violations be corrected within a certain time frame and issue $1,000 fines.
“Evidently we have two people, maybe more, who thought it would be smart to turn people in,” said Jeff Barger, of Ranchos. “I believe they will start a letter-writing campaign now. It’s really abhorrent.”
A half dozen residents interviewed for this article said they believe the complaints are linked to infighting at the subdivision’s community association, where residents have quarreled over the selection of officers, residency requirements and other matters.
But Bobbi Wood, a member of the community association board, said Ranchos residents were unhappy with shabby structures well before the ongoing dust-up over association leadership.
“We have pallet houses,” Wood said. “We have people driving onto a lot and setting up camp. We have people with no sanitation. There have been two home invasions in the last month. Those of us who are in permitted homes and follow the law are paying the price.”
Stretching back decades, the board would send out letters to homeowners, unsuccessfully trying to get them to come into compliance, she said.
“My guess is that someone just said enough is enough,” she said.
Whatever the root of the complaints, they’ve turned neighbor against neighbor, Fogelvik said.
“I do have some things I need to fix, but it’s not fun being turned in by your neighbor,” said Fogelvik, who is president of the Ranchos road maintenance corporation. “I’m trying to take the high route and say it’s a blessing in disguise, that it’s something I need to get done.”
Another resident who asked not to be named was less philosophical.
“I’m completely unpermitted, so I’m going to get hammered,” he said. “It’s gonna cost thousands of dollars and we can’t afford it. This is going to affect hundreds of people.”
The man said he and his wife aren’t living in an illegal 576-square foot cabin to flaunt the law, but out of necessity.
“We lost everything in the recession,” he said. “We moved in as soon as we got the roof on it.”