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"Unsafe flora" means any or any part of a tree, bush, vine, or grass that poses an
<br /> immediate fire, health, safety, property damage, or criminal threat to persons or adjacent
<br /> property and structures including buildings, roofs, rain gutters, antennae, driveways,
<br /> landscaping, privacy structures (including gates, fencing, and stone walls), tents, garages,
<br /> automobiles, power lines, phone lines, playground equipment, water catchments tanks,
<br /> swimming pools, or any other structures and property not identified here."
<br /> SECTION 4. Chapter 20, article 2, section 20-21 through section 20-23, of the Hawai`i
<br /> County Code 1983 (2005 Edition, as amended) are amended to read as follows:
<br /> "Section 20-21. Removal of refuse= [ate] undergrowth, and unsafe flora required.
<br /> Every owner of any occupied or unoccupied lot the frontage of which abuts or
<br /> adjoins any public street or highway within the County, shall clear the lot of all refuse,
<br /> [and] uncultivated undergrowth, and unsafe flora thereon to a depth of not exceeding one
<br /> hundred feet from any street or highway adjoining, whenever on the lot there is refuse,
<br /> [of] uncultivated undergrowth, or unsafe flora to an extent that the lot has become or is
<br /> likely to become a fire, health, safety, property damage, or crime hazard.
<br /> Section 20-22. Complaint by adjacent or abutting [owners] owner(s); request to
<br /> clear.
<br /> If a majority of all the adult residents within a radius of five hundred feet from
<br /> any boundary of, or the property owner of a property adjacent to or abutting, [o€] any
<br /> occupied or unoccupied lot, in writing to the mayor requests that the lot be cleared, the
<br /> mayor shall investigate the complaint. If the mayor certifies that there is refuse, [er]
<br /> uncultivated undergrowth, or unsafe flora on the lot complained about to an extent that
<br /> the lot has become or is likely to become a fire, health, safety, property damage, or crime
<br /> hazard,the mayor shall notify the owner of the lot to clear the occupied or unoccupied lot
<br /> of the refuse, [er] uncultivated undergrowth, or unsafe flora. If the offending uncultivated
<br /> undergrowth or unsafe flora is registered as an endangered or protected species or is
<br /> listed as "exceptional"pursuant to chapter 14, article 10 of this Code, the owner shall
<br /> submit in writing a treatment plan for its continued safe existence to the mayor's office,
<br /> the department of public works, the arborist advisory committee, the offended property
<br /> owner(s), and, if applicable, the homeowners association.
<br /> Section 20-23. Clearance by County; costs.
<br /> (a) If any owner, after notice to clear any occupied or unoccupied lot has been mailed
<br /> to the owner and posted by the mayor,fails or refuses to comply with the order
<br /> within thirty days after the notice, the County may proceed to clear the lot at the
<br /> expense of the owner.
<br /> (b) The expense of clearing any lot shall be a lien on the property so cleared, and the
<br /> County may recover the amount of the lien and the expense and costs of the
<br /> clearing by action at law in assumpsit, or by any action allowed by law in equity, or
<br /> that may be prescribed by statute, including any proceeding allowed for the
<br /> foreclosure of tax liens."
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