Shoreline Setbacks & Oceanfront Builds with Kris Eiserloh

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Interview Transcription

ADRIENNE: 
Welcome back, and thanks for listening to the Team Lally real estate show, home of the guaranteed sold program, or we’ll buy it. I’m Adrienne and I’m Attilio, and if you have any questions, just give us a call at 7999596, or check us out online at Team lally.com our

ATTILIO: 
guest today. Grew up in San Francisco and earned his architectural degree from UC Berkeley. He moved to Honolulu in 1986 and launched Eiserloh Architects in 1991 with a mission to stay personally involved in every project from start

ADRIENNE: 
to finish. He’s called East Oahu home for the last 38 years and is a proud husband and father of four. When he’s not designing stunning spaces, you’ll likely find him on the golf course or traveling with his family. He’s passionate about his work on the island lifestyle. Please welcome back. Kris Eiserloh,

KRIS: 
Yeah, hi. Thank you for having. Having me, it’s a pleasure to be here. Yeah, welcome

ADRIENNE: 
back. Yeah, it’s been

KRIS: 
quite a quite a lot’s happened since, I

ADRIENNE: 
know, since I was here. Yeah,

ATTILIO: 
I think when we last time we had you on the show, these laws were being proposed and now,

ADRIENNE:
or like, they we had a deadline, and then people had to, like, make some changes or submit paperwork, otherwise, you know, they were going to miss that opportunity. So

ATTILIO: 
now that the the dust has settled, or maybe the sand on the beach has settled, the time has coming on, you know, and the laws are in your way, yep, and eroded. The time has eroded away. Where So, what are so? What is going on if you’re have a home or thinking about building a home on the beach here in Oahu.

KRIS: 
Yeah. So, as you said, the laws were passed, the new laws that have come into effect. Really, the main issues are the shoreline and and the SMA. But let’s talk, talk with the shoreline first, because that’s the most important really, the shoreline setback. Yeah, the new setback law came in at 60 feet minimum, plus 70 times the erosion factor. And the erosion factor varies around the island, there’s a city and county, I guess, marks of what that erosion factor is for every property. So so a homeowner can actually go to the city website and find out what their erosion factor is. Multiply it by 70, and then have the 60 feet, and you get your total shoreline setback. Oh, wow, yeah, it’s, it’s a maximum of 130 feet, and the law was designed to provide a setback that theoretically will not have water encroachment for the next 70 years.

ATTILIO: 
So, 70 years, okay, yeah, yeah, so in

KRIS: 
seven days, but for now, you can’t use your property. But you know, because in 70 years, you might have water there. That’s kind of the thing

ATTILIO: 
that’s really coming up with the 70 Yeah, yeah.

KRIS: 
The with the city website is quite helpful. Now, a big question is going to be, well, my property is only 100 feet deep, and if I have 130 foot setback, yeah, what can I do? Yeah, right. Great question. Yeah. So they do have a provision that says there will be a minimum allowable 1500 square foot area that you could build your house, as long as it’s the furthest mauka of the property. And it also should be noted that that’s subject to, I guess, their approvals. So there’s a lot of contingencies with the shoreline. They have, you know, what they call the discretionary approvals, yes, yeah, so, but by and large, I think, I think the main issue is that, you know, there are also other conditions that come with that. 1500 square feet? Yeah, you have to raise your floor line three feet higher than the flood plain. Okay, you have some other things that go along with it, but it does get quite complicated, and there is no definitive answer. I recommend highly that anyone submits a request to the city and county for confirmation of the setback before proceeding. So

ADRIENNE: 
Kris, with this 1500 square feet, is that just the footprint of the home or the total home size?

KRIS: 
Yeah. So, so you can build two stories, but when it is a footprint, and that footprint kind of includes, like, if you’re going to build a garage, you know, driveway usually would typically interfere with, you know, going into the garage, unless you know, it all depends, but it is very restrictive. But theoretically, there there will be side setbacks that would come into play. But, you know, it theoretically, you can build 3000 square feet, but not really. I mean, you know, probably be maxed out at about 2500 Street, 2500 square feet total, yeah, that would be my guesstimate, you know, depending upon the property.

ATTILIO: 
And are you working with anybody like right now, where they got this lot the setback is way, way, way past the mauka side of the property line, and then you’re going through this process with the city?

KRIS: 
Well, you know, fortunately or unfortunately, I was able to get a. One of my projects passed before the new setback law came into place, but I am working on some new projects where the properties are a little larger and the setbacks aren’t as severe. I should also note that there is a provision that states in the the city core, if you will, the hardened shoreline, they’re only requiring a 60 foot setback, not a erosion factor. Now, where that setback is, you’ll have to look at a map on the city and county, but it’s essentially just the Honolulu itself, but it would not include places like, you know, Kahala or East Oahu, yeah, they’re gonna still, you know, use a erosion factor there. What

ATTILIO:
do you mean by hardened shoreline? That’s

KRIS: 
a, you know, I wish I

ATTILIO: 
knew, just on a map. It’s on the map.

KRIS: 
It’s on the map. And, you know, you know, I guess some places like Kakaako or, you know, those kind of areas, I think it’s, again, discretionary. I’m not sure how the city is established, what’s hardened and what’s being, what’s, you know, but they’ve done so, I think, in an effort to kind of mitigate the setback in the city proper. Yeah.

ATTILIO:
And, okay, so just repeating that again. It’s the erosion factor. So, like, I’m gonna, and we’re not gonna quote you on this, and this is all based on whatever the particular experts that determine this. But like, for example, erosion factor is it? Like, if you have a sandy beach front, I’m gonna guess you have more erosion than if you had, like, a solid reef, rocky rock, rocky beach. And actually,

ADRIENNE: 
Kris took us through this. We do have a coming soon property on the north shore of a lot of the beach. Yep. And we put the address in, and he showed me how, you know, to calculate it. And it was like a very easy process to understand and super helpful. Yeah, so it

KRIS: 
is. The city’s done a really good job with their website. If you go to the DPP, honolulu.gov/dpp, you’ll you’ll find an area, then it says permitting. And under permitting, they have a section that is coastal area permits. And if you scroll down to the coastal area permits, then they will direct you to a link of showing where the erosion factor map is. And there’s literally a number on every single ocean front lot, almost every giving you an erosion factor, wow, yeah, it’s, it’s North Shore, of course, and the and the East Oahu, or east side of the island, I should say, Kahuku, and all the going up the coast. Yeah, those are probably hit them the most of most severe erosion. But of course, Ewa beach and even Waianae Coast is pretty severe too. So, so in those particular properties, you could easily be at the 130 or the, you know, the 120 foot setback. Aulani Kai has also been severely impacted. Yeah. The only actual beach that I know of off the top of my head that is accreting is Kailua Beach. So if you have a property in Kailua, you’re actually not going to have an erosion factor to deal with. It’s just going to be a 60 foot setback. Oh,

ADRIENNE: 
wow, that’s good to know. Kailua, yeah, a little easier, yeah. You know,

ATTILIO: 
it was interesting, because we were literally just in Kailua yesterday, and I noticed that right off of Kailua Beach. I mean, I’m, I’m just a lay person, so, but I’m noticing that the beach is eroding right in front of Kailua Beach Park. You know, there was like, an ironwood tree that got they had to cut it down because it’s like in the ocean. Now, not in the ocean, but it’s like, right there, hanging, hanging, all the roots exposed, Yeah, but you’re saying that parts of Kailua have the just got the 60 foot setback, but no, doesn’t sound like it’s Kailua Beach Park, but

KRIS: 
I know that. I know that tree you’re talking about. Yeah, I think I was sitting under there one day for some reason. Well, the Kailua Beach, you know, it’s made up of a lot of sand dunes, yeah, before the property starts, so and so, you’ve almost have a 60 foot setback. A lot of the shoreline is actually Mackay of the properties. So, so the ones that I’ve looked at, the properties only had a 60 foot setback, and some of them didn’t even have that, because the shoreline might have been 20 feet or 30 feet. Mackay of their property line, gotcha. So they might have had a net 20 or 30 foot setback. Yeah. So that is a good beach to. Consider if you want an oceanfront property for those

ATTILIO: 
people listening to our show in the mainland, in in the in Hawaii, we don’t say like Northwest, East, you know, east, west, north, south. We don’t, we don’t do those kind of directions. We do ocean or mountain, right? Ocean or mountain. So Makai equals ocean, mauka equals mountain, and Ohana means no one gets left behind.

ADRIENNE: 
So, so, so speaking, you have no one getting left behind. Yeah, what kind of permitting timelines are we looking at here? Because I know that’s kind of been a hot button, you know, not just, not just with ocean front, but just in general,

ATTILIO: 
and is there an erosion factor that you need to use because these permits could take that long? Oh, right.

KRIS: 
So in general, I have to tell you, yeah, that the permit process is getting much, much better. Very impressive. Yay. Yes, the timelines for building permits that might have been 18 months are kind of pushing towards the six month mark now, and I expect them to maybe even get faster now, yeah, and then and when I’m saying this in general, I’m not talking about non ocean front or projects that are do not have to have an SMA Yeah. Okay, so for oceanfront projects, there’s two kind of classifications, and they are in process of reviewing those classifications. They’re trying to make it easier, yeah, meaning that the they’re trying to increase the dollar amount for an SMA minor, that’s a shoreline assessment minor, or an SMA major, which is any project that costs more than $500,000 right now. So for an SMA major, which is the vast majority of oceanfront projects, you’re looking at, about nine to 12 months to get an SMA approval. Once you get that approval, you could then submit for the building permit, and that would be an additional six months, gotcha. And and these timelines, of course, you know, can vary, so I don’t want you know the, I guess the owners to think that automatically, 18 months, yeah, could perhaps be 16, or it could be two years, yeah, but that would be a timeline I would use for an SMA major permit, yeah.

ATTILIO: 
So if you building permit, building on the ocean or shoreline, you need to be aware of these. What does SMA stand for, for the

KRIS: 
people, yes, Shoreline Management assessment, Shoreline Management

ATTILIO: 
assessment, and minor is below 500,000 and majors above, that’s

KRIS:
correct. And a minor use, you don’t have to go through a lot of the process. Yeah, still do have to go through a minor timeline. And then minor timeline is much less. One of the factors, though, that that could delay, or, you know, come into play at least, is the archeological requirements. Right now. This is another topic that is being discussed between the different agencies, between state and city as we talk. I was just talking with one of the planners on Monday, and they are trying to figure out which properties have to have an archeological inventory survey and which projects don’t. The state has taken a position that any project with sand has that to meet that requirement. Gotcha, the city is saying that’s not how the law is written. It’s only historical properties. So I think they’re trying to work something out, and I don’t know what will what the outcome will be, but that would be one of the factors that would go into either a minor or a major that you do have to have archeological studies, which do take time. Yeah,

ADRIENNE: 
now. Now, Kris, your firm specializes in shoreline in ocean front homes with like new builds, remodeling permitting, like you guys are all like you just are the It’s

ATTILIO: 
Your one thing, yes, right? Not the only thing, but it’s your focus. Yeah,

KRIS: 
that, yeah, that has been my specialty. What? And it’s really come about from referrals more than trying to focus on that. I do provide services for all, you know, the whole island, but I’ve been very fortunate that I’ve been working on some of the oceanfront homes. Those are always fun. Yeah, you know, you get to hang out in the ocean. Yeah,

ADRIENNE: 
what a great deal. It was a great. Right View,

ATTILIO: 
get a tan, do some consulting,

KRIS: 
exactly, have an excuse to go to the job site and make sure it’s getting built, right? Yeah, yeah. So it is my specialty. I’ve been doing it for the last 40 years, and have several that are in construction now, and some that are on the boards to be started

ATTILIO: 
the just to clarify to this is for Oahu, right? Or is this the same for the whole state of Hawaii,

KRIS: 
the permitting laws? Yeah, what you’re asking,

ATTILIO: 
yeah, just this, this new shoreline laws and everything that’s like Oahu, or is that

KRIS: 
shoreline laws or statewide? Okay, statewide, these are state requirements. The state came in and required the city to follow these mandates. Gotcha, the certain laws, you know, they’re, they’re a little different from, you know, county to county, yeah, in terms of what’s required, but end time timeline, of course, but yes, these are state laws that for shoreline setbacks. Gotcha. Now,

ADRIENNE: 
does your firm work with homeowners that want to build or do big remodels on other islands? Or is your primary focus on Oahu?

KRIS: 
Yeah, so my primary focus, or primary I guess work has been on Oahu. I always look forward to the opportunity to go to the outer islands, and I have done some work out there, someone Maui and someone Kauai, but I have been kind of focused on Oahu, just because these are the projects that have come into my office. Like I said, I don’t really advertise. It’s all come to you and so from

ADRIENNE: 
happy customers. Yeah, right. And happy customers Exactly, yeah. I just want to give a little kudos to you. It looks like just recently, I think this is like the highest sale recorded in the state of Hawaii, 65 million was one of your projects that you had actually designed over in Kahala. Yeah, yeah, yes.

KRIS: 
That’s that was a big surprise in terms of the price. And it did set a state record. It was a, you know, a real honor and privilege to work on that project. Yeah, you know, it took a team of engineers, architects, builders, five years to create. And I will say the most important, you know, part of that home was the owners themselves to do something like that, you know, spend five years creating something to live in. Wow. And it was quite a project. You know, it was, it was eight permits we needed, we and this is before the SMA was required. So it was, it was a great project. And I don’t think there will be another one that can be built like that with these new laws, yeah?

ATTILIO: 
So that makes that property like a one of a kind, one of a kind, yeah,

KRIS: 
it is. It’s a one of a kind property. It was. It was a double lot in Kahala, just the property itself. There’s very few properties in Kahala that have that square footage and frontage, yeah, and a really special property, okay, but I will tell you that it seems like there is a demand for those properties so, and I don’t think that that record is gonna stay that long. I think there’s gonna this. There are a lot of beautiful homes here, yeah, you know.

ATTILIO: 
So if you you know from your perspective and your expertise and your focus you have, you know, real a realtor will bring somebody to you, and they’re thinking about buying something shoreline, either, in fact, we do have a client.

ADRIENNE: 
Yes, I’ve already, I’ve already alerted him, yeah, so he may be giving

ATTILIO: 
you a call, but we do, or we may be doing a zoom or some kind of console, but he is looking to buy either a lot and build something and or existing, an existing structure on a lot, but it has to have a lot of shoreline access. But he wants the shoreline access, sandy beach and all that good stuff. So,

ADRIENNE: 
so we’re out there looking and hunting for this correct property, yeah. So if somebody’s

ATTILIO: 
buying something existing, what would be your one or two big pieces of advice for this person from your perspective and your expertise, yeah?

KRIS: 
So if something’s existing, what you really want to look for is, is this house laid out within the footprint of the house satisfactory to you what you want. Now this is, this is assuming that you’re inside the 60 foot setback, or this, you know, the erosion factor, meaning that you’re not going to be able to rebuild that house. So you want to make sure that it could be, you know, I just. Gets a 50% of the construction costs over 10 years, is what you can do. But so you got to just make sure that the layout is what you like, because you’re not going to be able to add on inside that setback. And you know, also look at the beach, just make sure that there isn’t significant erosion happening. Yeah, there are properties, especially on the North Shore, as we all know, that are really getting hit hard. Yes, there’s also properties around the island that are really getting hit hard and and so what I would recommend is whether you talk with me or talk with another architect or professional to have them take a look at the property. I do offer a free consultation to look at a property of sites, really looking I can help them navigate what they can do, what they can’t do, what the setbacks are, and kind of do kind of an overall assessment of that property. Yeah, and, and, but if, like I said, if they don’t use me, I would definitely get someone involved, because there are so many factors these days you don’t want

ADRIENNE: 
to be guessing or thinking that you really want to consult with a professional like yourself, yeah,

ATTILIO:
like in the summertime, the coconut tree was in my yard. In the winter time, the coconut tree is in the ocean. Oops, it moves. So I mean that I grew up on the North Shore, and winter time is way different than summertime. Waimea Bay, for example, was like a pool in the summertime, but during the winter, that’s when you’re seeing all the tourists in their backpacks and their beach chairs getting swept into the ocean.

ADRIENNE: 
Yeah, that’s right now, Kris, we are coming to the end of our show. Could you give a shout out to the best way to contact you? Should we have any listeners or real or realtors that want to get a hold of you? Yes? Oh, certainly.

KRIS: 
So. One of the best ways, of course, is my phone number, and that would be 808. 777. 7799 68, the other way I could be reached is through email, and my email is iserlo or Trump. Sorry, I was going to my website, Kris, k r, I s at Eiserloh Architects, it’s a long name, yes, I think maybe the phone number would be the easiest step, and I can then direct you to the website or my email. Okay, so Well,

ADRIENNE:
thank you, Kris for coming back and giving us an update, and it’s always a pleasure. And I’m sure story with you,

ATTILIO: 
we’ll have you back on the show with the shoreline update. That’s great.

KRIS: 
I really enjoyed our time together. And as I said, there are updates coming, so we should touch base in the next three to six months and see where we are. Okay.

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