Hawaii County, HI Fence Regulations: Retaining Walls (2026)
Key Facts
- Permit trigger
- Retaining walls four feet or higher (§ 5-3-1(b)(3))
- Engineer stamp required
- Walls over four feet need a licensed engineer's plans
- Stacked-wall rule
- Walls within eight feet of each other count as one
- Issuing authority
- Director of the Department of Public Works
- Grading-linked threshold
- Engineer design required at six feet under § 10-19(b)
- Default penalty
- $100 fine or 90 days jail, general § 1-10
Summary
Any retaining wall four feet or higher on the Big Island needs a building permit under Hawaii County Code Section 5-3-1(b)(3), and its plans must be prepared, designed, and stamped by a licensed architect or professional structural engineer under section 5-4-3(d) once the wall exceeds four feet. Stepped or terraced walls within eight feet of each other count as one wall for that threshold.
(b) A permit shall be required for, but not limited to, the following: ... (3) Retaining walls. Erection, construction, enlargement, alteration, repair, moving, conversion, or demolition of retaining walls four feet and higher. Stepped or terraced retaining walls within eight feet of each other are considered to be one wall when determining wall height. ... (d) All plans and specifications for retaining walls over four feet in height shall be prepared, designed, and stamped by a person who is licensed in the State of Hawai'i as an architect or professional structural engineer.
Full Breakdown
Hawaii County Code section 5-3-1(b)(3), in the Construction Administrative Code, lists retaining walls among the work items that always need a permit: "Erection, construction, enlargement, alteration, repair, moving, conversion, or demolition of retaining walls four feet and higher. " That stacking rule closes the obvious workaround of building two three-foot walls back to back to dodge the threshold. Section 5-4-3(d) then raises the design bar: plans and specifications for any retaining wall over four feet must be prepared, designed, and stamped by a person licensed in Hawai'i as an architect or professional structural engineer, the same requirement the code applies to structural concrete, masonry, and steel members.
The permit itself is issued by the authority having jurisdiction, defined at the front of chapter 5 as the director of the department of public works or the director's authorized representative. Chapter 10's erosion control rules layer on top of the building permit for walls tied to a grading project: section 10-19(b) lets the director of public works require an engineer-designed wall of six feet or over when cuts or fills need retaining, and reminds applicants that County zoning setbacks and the State land use commission's shoreline improvement rules still apply on top of the building permit. A wall under four feet, built with no grading permit trigger, needs neither a building permit nor an engineer's stamp under these sections.
Violations & Fines
Chapter 5 carries no standalone fine for building a retaining wall without a permit, so the Code's general penalty in section 1-10 applies: a fine of not more than $100, imprisonment of not more than ninety days, or both, for each offense, with a new offense arising for each day the work continues unpermitted. A wall over four feet built without the section 5-4-3(d) engineer's stamp is likewise out of compliance and subject to that same general penalty.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need a permit for a retaining wall under four feet?
Can I build two short walls to avoid the four-foot permit rule?
Who issues the retaining wall permit in Hawaii County?
Sources & Official References
Other rules in Hawaii County
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