LIHUE — The clock is ticking and the deadline is looming. County of Kauai officials say they would like to give nonresidential landowners more time to construct additional dwelling units on their property as the economy continues to recover. Though
LIHUE — The clock is ticking and the deadline is looming.
County of Kauai officials say they would like to give nonresidential landowners more time to construct additional dwelling units on their property as the economy continues to recover.
Though the practice was discontinued about seven years ago, current county laws allow nonresidential property owners to build accessory dwelling units on their properties, if they submitted the proper forms or permits before that time.
The problem occurred in 2008 when the economic recession hit and building slowed. Of the nearly 460 nonresidential property owners who applied to build additional dwelling units, only about 130 of them were able to get them off the ground.
“This is an opportunity for people to be able to build and keep stimulating the economy through carpenter and cement jobs,” said Council Chair Jay Furfaro, who wants to propose a bill that would give those property owners an additional 10 years to construct their accessory dwelling units, commonly known as ADUs.
But an added stipulation to a proposed extension — which expires in December — is an annual fee could come with it.
And some residents say they are concerned Bill 2545’s proposed annual recertification process and yearly $750 administrative processing fee would be too much to handle.
Ketchikan, Alaska, resident and former Kauai resident Mary Welsh said she owns a one-acre, agriculturally zoned lot in Wailua Homesteads and originally purchased it to build a home. But that dream, she said, did not become a reality. The recession delayed those plans and hindered efforts to sell a portion of her property to supplement her retirement income.
Though she supports the County Council’s recommendation to provide landowners with an additional window to construct their units, Welsh said she believes the annual fee and recertification process for her forms “is totally unjustified and feels like extortion.”
“I also feel that, if this part is added to the ordinance, my chances of selling my property will be greatly hindered,” Welsh wrote in a letter to the Planning Department. “It would keep any interested buyer from buying because of the added cost, stress and uncertainty.”
Other residents also question whether county officials should have approved the additional dwelling unit restrictions on nonresidential properties, especially on agriculturally and open zoned lands, several years ago.
“It does not seem fair, correct or pono for any person who owns land to be told to build a house or not and be legislated to do so,” Medrakanoeonapua wrote in an email to the county Planning Department. “This is land that I bought to care for, to protect and pass on to my children. There is no money at this time for the majority of us and it would create hardship to build now and who knows in the future.”
The annual $750 fee, according to the bill, can be used by Planning Department officials to hire inspectors. Those fees may also be used for “materials, supplies and equipment that facilitate inspections, and for payment of overtime to conduct inspections.
One additional dwelling unit, either attached or detached, may be developed on “any residentially zoned lot where only one single family residential dwelling is permitted,” according to current county laws.
Kapaa resident Chris Hayden said he has circulated a petition among some of the estimated 330 accessory dwelling unit form and permit holders asking county Planning Commissioners to permanently reinstitute the county’s policy of allowing those structures on open and agriculturally zoned lands.
A total of 137 property owners, he said, have signed it.
“My experience has been that all people throughout the island have personal reasons for requesting this and they have personal reasons for not yet building,” Hayden told Planning Commissioners during a recent meeting.
Patricia Lyons, a 52-year-old Kapaa resident, said her family has been living on their 25-acre property since her father purchased the land in 1967. Her father, she recalled, always said she and other family members could build an additional dwelling unit of their own on the property when they became older.
Lyons said her father died in 1997 “and did not see his dreams become a reality.”
“I am asking on behalf of my late father, who had a dream for his children, to please extend the ADU deadline indefinitely,” Lyons told Planning Commissioners. “This will allow the dream for me, my mom and my two brothers become a reality.”
Kalihiwai resident Robert McReynolds said he owns an agriculturally zoned lot but has “not been financially able to move onto the next step of getting and submitting plans, and building.”
But now that his older children are adults, McReynolds said he is “hopeful that I can get them involved in building a house.”
“I think that I am among many local people who have had or are having this experience,” Danie McReynolds wrote in an email. “Extending the ADU ordinance on ag lands would help and encourage Kauai families in providing for their futures.”
County Planning Director Michael Dahilig agreed.
“We do recognize some ADU certificates are held by land speculators, but we believe wholly terminating the program would be at the detriment of many kamaaina families on the island,” Dahilig wrote in his report on the proposed bill.
He said that the proposed bill has been deferred pending legal review of some issues and will be likely revisited by the Planning Commission at the end of September.
•••
Darin Moriki, county government reporter, can be reached at 245-0428 or dmoriki@thegardenisland.com. Follow him on Twitter at @darinmoriki.
