This Kāneʻohe Couple Hopes To Resolve Permit Issues Before They Die

Dick and Noreen Van Horn, both 86, just wanted to resolve some minor permit issues with their family property so they could pass it on to their children. But that endeavor has turned into a two-and-a-half year waiting game with the Honolulu permitting department. The dispute centers on a deck they installed in 1984 at their property along the Kāneʻohe Bay shoreline. Forty years later, the Honolulu Department of Planning and Permitting said it was unauthorized, and the homeowners needed to demolish it. The couple requested a contested case hearing to resolve the disagreement, but a hearing date never came. Now the case is in limbo. “We started all this crap to sort the stuff out so we can leave it to our kids,” he said, but the couple is still waiting and say they’re being met with silence from DPP about the status of the appeal.

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