A resolution scheduled to be heard in a Honolulu City Council Committee
In the Pacific Business News article, Honolulu resolution seeks to add to layer of rules for affordable housing developers, Janis L. Magin addresses new rules for us. Here is an excerpt from the article:
A resolution scheduled to be heard in a Honolulu City Council committee Thursday would require developers seeking to build affordable housing on Oahu under Hawaii’s 201H law to mail notifications to all property owners within 300 feet of the proposed site.
Developers say Resolution 20-178, which would require the Department of Planning and Permitting to enforce the rule, adds more hurdles, barriers and cost to an already difficult development process that already requires extensive community engagement — at a time when Hawaii needs more housing for workers such as teachers, nurses, firefighters and retail workers and as some 9,000 tenants are at least two months behind in rent because of the Covid-19 pandemic closures.
Councilmember Kymberly Pine, who introduced the resolution July 28, said “mailing to a few hundred homes around the area isn’t that expensive.” The measure is on the agenda for the Zoning, Planning and Housing Committee's Thursday meeting.
Pine said she introduced the resolution because of the neighborhood complaints raised last year over the Hale O Makana Maili affordable rental project, which is in her Leeward district, saying the experience “really affected me.” A neighborhood group filed a lawsuit against the project and is appealing a lower court ruling.
“While I am a strong supporter of affordable housing, you still have to make sure that the people who are going to be affected by the project are aware,” she told Pacific Business News. "I think every person has a right to know there’s going to be a zone change that dramatically changes the character of the neighborhood.
But Kali Watson, president and CEO of the Hawaiian Community Development Board, a nonprofit developer working on the Maili project, said the project went through three years of review, vetting and scrutiny by the state, city and the community, including presentations to two neighborhood boards, to comply with the 201H process, which is administered by the Hawaii Housing Finance Development Corp.
Please see full article here.