Kona Dome Inspection Stalls as No Trespassing Signs Block County Access

A county inspector dispatched to investigate a dome house in Kona suspected of operating as an illegal short-term vacation rental on agricultural land came away with little more than an admiring comment. The property is landlocked, accessible only through easements on adjoining properties, and those easements are posted with "No Trespassing" signs. Faced with those signs, the public works inspector said he could not disregard them and instead viewed the structure from the yard of a neighbor identified only as Lopez.

"He did say what a nice-looking structure it was," Lopez said. "But now we're almost a year along, and the county is just not taking ownership of this."

Lopez provided emails documenting the June inspector visit, which showed the inspector drove to the property but was stopped at the boundary. Lopez noted the "No Trespassing" signs predate the current owner of the dome. That distinction matters legally, but it has done little to move enforcement forward. As Civil Beat reported, "details like those are hard to verify if inspectors don't actually go onto the property."

Hawaiʻi County Council Chair Holeka Inaba said the Kona situation is not isolated. Inspections being blocked by "No Trespassing" signs are a recurring problem for property enforcement across the county. He called for Hawaiʻi's corporation counsel and the county's building department to develop more uniform enforcement procedures when access is obstructed. He also suggested physical access may not always be necessary. "I mean, you may not need access if it's an unpermitted structure, you can just see it from the road," Inaba said.

The legal backdrop for the case is firmly established. In 2019, Hawaiʻi County passed a law generally banning short-term vacation rentals on agricultural lots created after 1976. A group of petitioners who owned Big Island agricultural blocks created after 1976 challenged the ordinance, were rebuffed by the county, and then appealed to the state Land Use Commission, which ruled in the county's favor. The petitioners carried their challenge to the state Supreme Court, which found that "short-term vacation rentals undermine agricultural purposes." Gov. Josh Green publicly applauded that ruling as a win for preserving valuable agricultural land.

Despite that legal foundation, the Kona dome case illustrates how enforcement on the ground can stall when properties are physically inaccessible and county agencies lack a unified protocol for gaining entry. Whether the county will pursue a court order to access the easements, or rely on roadside observation as Inaba suggested, remains an open question as the case stretches well past the one-year mark since Lopez first raised the alarm.