LIHUE — It has been nearly 25 years since the county approved a Princeville Development Corporation plan to expand the Princeville Center and required that the project also include nearby employee housing. The Princeville Center’s ownership has changed a number
LIHUE — It has been nearly 25 years since the county approved a Princeville Development Corporation plan to expand the Princeville Center and required that the project also include nearby employee housing.
The Princeville Center’s ownership has changed a number of times since then, but county officials say the need for affordable housing in the area has not.
That could change within the next year, if the county’s Planning Commission approves a plan posited by Seattle-based affordable housing developer Vitus Group to construct a rental housing development next to the shopping center.
“Located in the high-cost vacation region of Princeville, it will provide scarce and desperately needed affordable workplace housing,” JoAnn Yukimura, chair of the Kauai County Council’s Housing and Transportation Committee, wrote in a letter of support for the project June 27 to Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corporation Executive Director Karen Seddon.
“Within walking and biking distance of various hotels and timeshare vacation rentals, it meets the ‘smart growth’ criteria by promoting affordable housing and affordable transportation, two of the biggest household costs for most families.”
Plans call for the development of 44 one-, two- and three-bedroom rental apartments on about 3.5 acres of vacant land on the makai side of Kuhio Highway just north of the Princeville Center.
These plans also outline the construction of a nearby parking lot and community center that will include a garden path, barbecue grilling areas and landscaped community open space areas.
Previous requirements for the affordable housing project stipulated that 75 units be constructed for those who qualify for affordable housing through the Kauai County Housing Agency in addition to 25 additional market rate units.
Those requirements, however, were reduced by the Planning Commission last year.
All of the units at the project, called Kolopua, will be rented to households earning less than 60 percent of the island’s median income, which is currently listed at $64,422, according to 2007 to 2011 U.S. Census Bureau data.
So households would have to earn less than $38,600 to qualify to rent a unit.
The units, according to an agreement between project developer Vitus Group and the County of Kauai, will remain affordable for a minimum of 61 years.
Fee simple interest of the land where the housing project would sit would be transferred from Kolopua Partners, LP to the County of Kauai at no cost within 60 years, according to county documents.
Phone calls and emails to Vitus Group and project manager Steve Busch of S L Busch & Associates were not returned before Tuesday’s deadline.
An agency hearing for the project will go before the Planning Commission at 9 a.m. Jan. 14 at the Lihue Civic Center Moikeha Building in Meeting Room 2A/2B.
