Dream home in paradise leads to 'total dismay'

by Keli'i Akina, Ph.D., President / CEO, Grassroot Institute of Hawaii

Shahzaad Ausman never imagined that government bureaucracy could make it illegal for him to live in his own home. But the unimaginable happened, and we now have a cautionary tale about the perils of permitting and Hawaii’s “culture of fear.”

As I wrote about a few months ago, Hawaii Island homeowner Mr. Ausman is entangled in a complex permitting nightmare that basically means he may not live in the home that he bought three years ago unless he straightens out some Kafkaesque issues that so far have been unresolvable.

During a recent conversation on ThinkTech Hawaii with my Grassroot colleague Joe Kent that’s worth a watch, Ausman recounted in detail how he tried working with county officials in every way he could think of to resolve the issue, including going to the mayor, who he said “closed the door in my face.”

Finally, Ausman spent a day pleading his case before the county’s Board of Appeals, but that proved fruitless too.

So now, falling back on the only recourse left to him, he is suing the county in circuit court.

“Where it stands,” Ausman said, “is I'm still kind of like at square one, where I don't know where I am, I don't know what's happening. The future is unknown. And it's really stressful because I bought [the house], I put all this money in it, and now I have to hire an attorney — and that's another cost — and I still don't know if I will succeed there. I still don't know if this is the path that can remedy what's happened — can remedy my wrong.”

Ausman also spoke of a “culture of fear” that made it difficult not only to find an attorney, but also to find local architects willing to speak in his defense. Those who refused told Ausman that it was “because we work with these people, and if we come and testify, they might not give us permits and then our clients are going to be upset.”

He told Joe that he’s not doing this for only himself and his family, but for the many other people in Hawai‘i County who might be stuck in similar permitting nightmares.

According to news reports, there could be tens of thousands of other Hawaii Island residents whose permits were categorized as “expired” in June 2022, just like Ausman’s, after the county’s new Electronic Processing and Information Center system came on line.

Ausman said he hopes his case will be an eye-opener for the County and mayor “to see that, hey, this is a big problem. We implemented the [EPIC] system, but the system caused new issues. Maybe that was not intended, but it is what happened.”

Concluding the conversation, Ausman shared with Joe how his view of local government has evolved throughout the ordeal.

“I think that local government is here to help the constituents,” he said, “We vote for them to fight for our rights. We vote for them to be our defender. But here, it seems like we vote for them and then they make it more difficult for you or they just do nothing.

“In the end,” Ausman continued, “I think that local governments have such a special power, and they should use that for the greater good of everybody — not expanding their local government to create more burdens and hurdles for everybody, like what's been going on here.”

I couldn’t agree more. And I hope that, indeed, Ausman’s case will be an eye-opener.

E hana kākou! (Let's work together!)

P.S. If you or someone you know received a notice from the County of Hawai‘i that your permit also expired with the activation of the EPIC system in June 2022, we want to hear from you. Please reach out to us at info@grassrootinstitute.org.