Kaimukī resident Elaine Evans said she was surprised and discouraged when she saw workers resuming construction at 3615 Sierra Dr. — a project cited for multiple violations that neighbors have fought for five years.

Christie Zeng Lei, now known as Christy Zeng Tong, is one of Oahu’s most prolific monster house developers. She built three large two-story homes with four dwelling units on the Sierra Drive property. 

Despite years of neighborhood complaints, notices of violation and a permit revocation, Tong was given approval by the city’s Department of Planning and Permitting on Jan. 30 to finish construction. 

Ideas showcases stories, opinion and analysis about Hawaiʻi, from the state’s sharpest thinkers, to stretch our collective thinking about a problem or an issue. Email news@civilbeat.org to submit an idea or an essay.

Read More

DPP, responding to a revised permit submitted by Tong, is allowing her to keep the three original buildings without reducing their exterior footprint because she says she is largely turning nearly 2,000 square feet of living space into garages in three of the four units.

On paper the project shrank; on the ground it did not.

“It just leaves a bad feeling. The bottom line is she was able to proceed without any change in square footage or setbacks,” said architect and neighbor Stephen Yuen.

Barbara DeBaryshe, another neighbor, said, “It is very disappointing. Nothing substantial has changed. By making very minor changes in their plans they were able to proceed.”

City ordinances exempt garages, basements and lanais from being counted as living space.

In the revised permit, DPP says Tong came into compliance by converting ground-floor living areas into garage parking spaces and by reducing the number of bathrooms that had been in the original filing from 17.5  to 16. By ordinance, she is allowed four bathrooms for each of the four units.

DPP Director Dawn Takeuchi Apuna said in an interview that the revised plans reduced the counted living space from 13,094 square feet (nearly 0.7 FAR) to 11,187.5 (below the 0.6 FAR limit). FAR or floor area ratio is the amount of under-roof living space allowed on a residential lot. In Oahu’s residential neighborhoods, it is 0.6 or 60% of a lot.

A reduction of 1,906.5 square feet was achieved without reducing the buildings’ footprint.     

Honolulu City Council Chairman Tommy Waters said he also was stunned to see construction underway.

“We worked so hard to shut it down after the many violations. It is disappointing to see it up and running again,” he said.

Tong said she is fine with making the changes and happy that she is able to finish the project. She said when she bought the 20,000-square-foot property in 2016 for $2.6 million she believed it was large enough for four residences for herself and her brother and sister and her parents.

But she said after DPP approved her initial permit, it insisted on changes that she included in a revised permit. But the department later deemed them insufficient and revoked her permit, she said.

“It has been a struggle for 10 years. I have tried to do what I was supposed to do. I am not a bad person,” she said.

When I interviewed Tong in 2021, she had racked up 35 violations on more than 50 properties during the years she was building large home projects with her then-husband Yi Su Chiu and other partners.  

DPP says Tong was not fined for the Sierra Drive property because her permit was revoked. However, I found she paid a $366 fine at the start of the project for failing to obtain a permit to demolish two older houses on the property.

Takeuchi Apuna said fines on other Tong properties include $22,100 for a development at 1411 Pālolo St., which she paid, as well as unpaid fines of $350 for a property at 41-859 Kalanianaʻole Highway in Waimānalo and $249,400 for a property at 928C 9th Ave., where the city has placed a lien. That fine is still accumulating.

The history of complaints about construction violations at 3615 Sierra Dr. started five years ago when neighbors hosted what they called “a not-so-happy-hour” on the sidewalk in front of the development.

Waters, who lives in the neighborhood, attended the “not-so-happy-hour” and promised then to craft legislation to discourage property owners from working around building laws to create oversized homes.  

A series of new ordinances were enacted starting in 2019, to limit the percentage of living space under one roof and the number of bathrooms and wet bars, and to require deeper setbacks. Impervious surfaces were capped at 75% of a lot and fines for violations were increased.

After investigating the neighbors’ complaints about the Sierra Drive property in 2021, DPP discovered Lei had given incorrect information about the amount of living space in the buildings, and had created insufficient setbacks, had too many wet bars, and had exceeded the bathroom limit with 17.5 bathrooms.

In 2022, DPP revoked Tong’s permit leaving the structures half finished for two years as tall weeds overtook the property. Lei appealed to the city’s building board of appeals but in 2024, the board upheld the revocation.

Until then, enforcement of existing city ordinances had been sporadic and fines irregularly imposed. Neighbors said they felt vindicated.

DPP director Takeuchi Apuna said then the offending parts of the three houses would have to be torn down. 

But that never happened. 

As allowed by law, Tong submitted a new permit which DPP approved.

“These monster homes are like the Michael Meyers character ‘The Shape’ in the movie ‘Halloween’.  No matter how hard you hit it, it gets back up and when you think you have killed it, it comes back to life,” said Waters.

He said he will introduce new legislation to make it more difficult for developers to do garage-exemption workarounds, and, after a certificate of occupancy is issued, close in the garages to turn them into additional living space.

Takeuchi Apuna says she is also interested in legislation to prevent allowing extensive garage space that later can be converted into living areas.