Hawaii County, HI Landscaping Rules: Weed Ordinances (2026)

5(12) of the Hawai'i Revised Statutes is the enabling law that lets Hawai'i County treat overgrown, uncultivated undergrowth and refuse as a public nuisance at all: without it the county would have no authority to force an owner to clear a lot. The statute's reach is specific, authorizing clearing from streets, sidewalks, public places and unoccupied lots, language written to reach fire-prone growth crowding public rights-of-way and vacant parcels, not just structures. Enforcement runs against the property, not the person: after reasonable notice to the owner, the county may do the clearing itself and impose and enforce liens upon the property for the cost, so an owner who ignores an order risks a debt attached to the land rather than a criminal citation.

Paragraph (12) is not self-executing. The legislature built in a check: the power becomes fully effective within a county only upon the enactment or adoption by the county of appropriate and particular laws, ordinances, or rules defining public nuisances with respect to each county's own circumstances. Hawai'i County satisfied that condition by adopting its own weed, refuse and undergrowth clearing ordinance in County Code Chapter 14, Article 25, which spells out the county's own distance, notice and cost-recovery mechanics under this state authority. The statute also bakes in due process: the counties shall provide the property owner with the opportunity to contest the summary action and to recover the owner's property, so a lot owner facing a clearing order has a right to be heard before the county's work becomes final and before any lien is enforced against the parcel.