How buildings get their house numbers and who must post them

(a) Authorization. The director or the director’s designated assistant shall plan and regulate the numbering of all buildings in the city. (b) Method in rural areas. The director or such person’s designated assistant in numbering buildings in areas outside of the districts of Honolulu, Pearl City, Lanikai, Kailua, Wahiawa, the city of Kapolei, and any urban areas specifically designated by the director as exempt from this subsection shall adhere in all respects to the following system of numeration. The first digit of the building number shall correspond with the zone number of the appropriate tax map of the City and County of Honolulu; the second digit of the building number shall correspond to the section number of the tax map. The remaining digits of the building number shall be assigned in a manner to be determined by the director or such person’s designated assistant. (c) Numbering of entrances. All main entrances to buildings shall be numbered, and the director or the director’s designated assistant shall assign to each building its proper number or numbers and furnish free of charge to the owner a certificate designating each number and location. (d) Duty of the property owner. (1) It shall be the duty of every person owning any building within the city to number the same or cause the same to be numbered correctly within 60 days after receipt of the certificate designating the assigned number, and to remove or efface any wrong number upon such building. (2) All numbers shall be placed in such manner as to be readily seen from the street, roadway, or lane, shall be of different color from the background on which they are placed, and shall be at least 2 inches in height. The number shall be placed in a permanent manner, chalk, or other effaceable material not being permitted. (3) All buildings shall be numbered at the expense of the owner. (4) An owner of a building may supplement the building numbers required by this section with numbers on the curb fronting the building. Curb numbers shall be painted on the curb fronting the respective building in an area as close to the middle of such curb frontage as possible, measured from property line to property line, or, where a driveway exists, in the area immediately adjacent to the driveway, or in any other such manner as to make clear to which building the numbers refer. The numbers shall only be allowed in addition to the numbers required by this section and shall be painted in a manner to be determined by the director. (e) Penalty for tearing, defacing, or changing number. Any person tearing down, defacing, or changing any number put up in accordance with this section will, upon conviction, be guilty of a misdemeanor and will be subject to a fine of not more than $100 and not less than $25. (f) Penalty for failure to conform to requirements of numbering. Any owner of a building in the city who neglects to number the building as provided in this section or who places, maintains, or allows to remain thereon any number other than that assigned by the director or the director’s designated assistant after being notified in writing by the director or the director’s designated assistant, will, upon conviction, be guilty of a misdemeanor and will be subject to a fine of not less than $25 nor more than $100, and a further penalty of like sum for every two weeks thereafter that the property owner neglects or refuses to properly number the house or building or efface an improper number.