Influx of Permits for Fort-Like, Block-Based Houses Bewilders Maui Planners

Maui County planners report an influx of permits for structures made of cinder-block bottom floors, with some of having regular stick-framed second floors, apparently in response to fears of a rising ocean.

"There have been a lot of what we in the office call 'Lego Shelters,' " said Bob Johansson of the Maui County planning department. "Few long-time Maui residents trust that the ocean will remain where it is, especially in low-lying areas like Kahului or Kihei."

In the lower-elevation, suburb-oriented housing tracts on-island, passersby are witnessing unusual looks like wood stick framing popping up from a bottom floor made entirely of cinder blocks in a plain rectangle, with door and window openings left for finishing work later on.

Even for single-story additions, Maui planners said they are seeing more and more all-cinder block walls, as if that alone will fend off rising swells.

“Sometimes we wonder if they’re going to install special vault-like waterproof doors, and windows that seal so if the water goes too high the views inside will look like you’re inside a submarine,” said Peter Ha'alele, trends analyst with the county planning department. "Wouldn't that be cool?"

Local homeowners gave a variety of reasons for their request for plain rectangular additional structures on their properties.

"We expanded the house in the past and it took forevs for the bureaucrats to approve even the smallest of requests," said Igor Pinanone, who has owned a house in central Kahului since the 1970s. "So we asked our architect to make it as simple as possible, so even an 8-year-old could understand it."

"We’re afraid to even ask them if we need a permit to stucco the darn thing," said Felicity dela Cruz, who lives not far from Pinanone near Maui High School. "We might just leave it like that. We see a lot of others being built as square cinder blocks so it kind of looks like we’d be part of a trend."

Agnes Stevenson of north Kihei said she is building a Lego shelter just because it's way more inexpensive than anything with touches of style.

"That climate change stuff is malarkey. Answer this: how did the last Ice Age end? Can't blame people or pollution. Was it caused by woolly mammoth farts?" she asked. "We went with cinder blocks and a perfect rectangle with no frills whatsoever so we wouldn’t confuse the guys always talking story at the planning department desk."