LIHUE — It has been nearly seven years since Kauai Habitat for Humanity administrators submitted plans to build the first 48 homes in the second phase of the nonprofit’s Eleele Iluna subdivision. But the green light needed to push construction
LIHUE — It has been nearly seven years since Kauai Habitat for Humanity administrators submitted plans to build the first 48 homes in the second phase of the nonprofit’s Eleele Iluna subdivision.
But the green light needed to push construction forward, in the form of county permit approvals, was only granted for next month — just in time to begin the six-month construction process for the homes.
“It’s just a real burden,” Kauai Habitat for Humanity Executive Director Stephen Spears said on Thursday. “It takes six months to do the construction but seven years to get the permits in place.”
That could change, Spears said, if the Kauai County Housing Agency moves forward with a provision in the county’s housing law to expedite the permit approval process for developments that designate at least 51 percent of all units to workforce housing.
The expedited permitting process, Spears estimates, would cut the approval time for future Eleele Illuna subdivision plans down to about two years.
“As we all know, time is money, and if you can save an affordable housing developer time, hopefully they can produce a product that has lower cost and then require less subsidy,” Kauai County Housing Agency Director Kamuela Cobb-Adams said. “We are basically trying to work through it and implement it as soon as possible.”
County departments, according to the Kauai County Code, may implement a priority permitting policy for a specific time, if the mayor issues a proclamation and County Council approves a resolution acknowledging “a crisis in the availability of workforce housing” that could be solved by an expedited approval process.
“This legally allows certain projects to be put in front of other permits and to be reviewed,” Cobb-Adams explained. “It goes through the same review process but it just becomes No. 1, given the circumstances to affordable housing and the need of our workforce.”
Workforce housing is defined as units to be rented to sold to households earning 80 percent or less of Kauai’s median household income to 140 percent of the island’s median household income.
Kauai Mayor Bernard Carvalho Jr. issued a proclamation authorizing the expedited permit provision for five years in January, while the Kauai County Council issued its own resolution that was unanimously approved during their March 5 meeting.
Kauai County Housing Agency officials will hold a public meeting on April 3 to gather input on the department’s administrative rules governing the fast-track permitting process.
Under the proposed rules, the housing agency will determine which developers and projects are eligible for fast-track permitting, said Gary Mackler, housing development coordinator with the Kauai County Housing Agency.
Housing agency officials would then issue a workforce housing certificate to go with those applications, authorizing all county agencies and departments to prioritize the review of those projects, Mackler said.
If no significant issues arise, fast-track permitting is expected to be implemented on April 15.
The county housing agency, Cobb-Adams said, traditionally subsidizes housing, meaning that the county buys down the cost of the housing for qualified individuals whether it is through rent programs or developing projects.
But the federal government, he explained, has made significant cutbacks to the majority of the housing agency’s subsidies.
“We have a tremendous task with less money, so we need to be creative and innovative,” Cobb-Adams said. “We would like to attract other developers or philanthropists who want to do great projects, so our intent isn’t just to implement current projects under this but to provide success that will hopefully encourage others to come here and participate.”
No additional costs, Cobb-Adams said, should be needed to implement the expedited permitting process.
Mackler said the expedited permitting process could help complete the second phase of Kauai Habitat for Humanity’s Eleele Iluna subdivision, which would provide about 50 units for first-time homeowners.
The provision could also allow the county to further develop its Rice Camp Senior Housing project by adding 24 units to the 60 now under construction.
“This fast-track permitting can really help upcoming projects,” Mackler said. “I think this policy really can help a number of projects move forward more quickly.”
A public meeting to review administrative rules on the fast-track permitting process will be held at 3 p.m. April 3 at the county’s Piikoi Building in Conference Room B.
Written comments will be accepted until April 9 and should be mailed to: Kauai County Housing Agency, Attn: Kanani Fu, 4444 Rice Street, Suite 330, Lihue, HI 96766.
• Darin Moriki, county government reporter, can be reached at 245-0428 or dmoriki@thegardenisland.com. Follow him on Twitter at @darinmoriki.
