Company takes 6 months to settle $10K penalty

Six months after being sanctioned by the Coastal Resources Management, a Garapan business finally settled its $10,000 fine with the agency on Monday.

CRM director Joaquin Salas said YPIA Saipan Co. Ltd. waived its rights to appeal the enforcement action, and paid the fine imposed against it for expanding a building without a proper CRM permit.

Salas further noted that YPIA president Nobuhiro Yamaguchi agreed to comply with the conditions set by the agency for the company’s construction project in Garapan. These conditions bind YPIA to consume a maximum of 3,500 gallons of water and 500 KVH of power.

Last Jan. 8, CRM ordered YPIA to stop construction activities at a four-story apartment in Garapan and to pay a $10,000 fine. This came after CRM found that the company used two separate names to secure two CRM permits for a single construction project “in an effort to circumvent the permit requirements.”

In the enforcement notice, Salas noted that on Dec. 18, 2002, YPIA submitted a draft permit application package to CRM for the construction of a three-story, 18-unit studio apartment on Lot Nos. 001D21 and 001D22, where a commercial/residential building existed.

Based on the application package, CRM made a determination that the project is a “major siting” and that a CRM permit is required before the start of construction.

On March 11, 2003, CRM received an earthmoving and erosion control permit application from the Division of Environmental Quality. The document, which bore Capital Construction Co. Ltd. as applicant, included a sublease agreement describing that the two lots had been consolidated and then parceled again into another two different lots.

Salas said this gave CRM the impression that Capital Construction and YPIA are two different entities and that the proposed project outlined in the DEQ permit application was a separate project from the commercial/residential building.

As a result, CRM in a letter dated March 17, 2003, informed Capital Construction that a CRM permit would not be required.

In the same letter, CRM informed Capital Construction that any expansion of the apartment building would require consultation with CRM.

However, during a routine monitoring of the project area last Oct. 10, 2003, CRM discovered that the apartment is contiguous and an expansion has been made to the existing building.

During another monitoring on Nov. 19, 2003, CRM found that an extra fourth floor has been added to the proposed three-story apartment.

“Due to deviation from the original plans submitted in both the draft CRM permit application package and the DEQ…permit application, it has become apparent that the consolidation of the property, then the subdivision of the property, and the sublease of Lot No. 001D73 to Capital Construction…were an effort to circumvent the permit requirements,” Salas said.

He also noted that the contract for the construction of the four-story building was entered into by Elephant Corp. and YPIA Saipan,, and not Capital Construction.