Kakaako’s state Rep. Scott Saiki has introduced eight bills to rein in — and even abolish — the Hawaii Community Development Authority.
About time.
This agency has been destroying our community — the way a rogue City Council ruined Waikiki in the 1970s — instead of implementing plans that "meet the highest needs and aspirations of Hawaii’s people."
HCDA tells us it is all about community, yet operates as if Kakaako’s current residents and businesses didn’t exist. We’re the missing "C" — "community" — in HCDA, which operates as the "Hawaii Development Authority." The authority helps developers maximize profits by stuffing too many condos into Kakaako’s 450 acres, most at prices locals can’t afford.
HCDA has yet to approve a developer-modification-free project. And it fails to protect viewplanes. The "Symphony" condominium, the first approved under HCDA’s 2011 rules requiring mauka-makai structure alignments, instead runs Diamond Head-Ewa, ruining Makiki’s views.
As for the new "communities" HCDA plans, these so far offer no schools, no traffic improvements, no fixes of current sewer problems — with no impact fees on developers to cover costs. This means either you will be taxed, or densely- packed Kakaako residents — 37 new towers, including the "iconic" 700-foot skyscraper — will suffer from HCDA’s inattention.
We ignore the details of HCDA’s planned "Third City" (urban Honolulu needs a new city?) at our peril. Any such "Third City" requires parks — two acres for every 1,000 residents, 60 acres for Kakaako’s 30,000 new people. Yet HCDA "plans" no parks, instead reducing and commercializing makai’s public park land.
Those testifying before HCDA are bothered by claims that it’s "committed to taking feedback to heart" and "revising plans accordingly." In practice, HCDA helps developers break existing rules. At the hearing on Howard Hughes’ 404 Ward project — sited 120 feet from low-income Kauhale Kakaako, in violation of the 300-feet separation rule — HCDA stopped the only elderly renter testifying against the project. When she begged to continue, HCDA silenced her instead, then quickly, unanimously approved the rule-breaking project.
Almost every HCDA presentation, speech and publication deceptively assures us the authority is committed to "affordable" or "reserved" or "workforce" housing that will take care of residents starved for an affordable home. Yet HCDA is only saying what the law demands of it: build "affordable housing" for "residents of low- or moderate-income."
In truth, it’s not.
Though the Housing and Urban Development Department (HUD) uses two different definitions, its Community Development Block Grant affordable housing program defines "moderate income" as 80 percent or less of area median income (AMI), and "low income" as 50 percent or less of AMI. In Honolulu, 80 percent of AMI is $70,500, and 50 percent of AMI is $38,800. Yet HCDA’s "reserved housing" is for households making 140 percent of AMI or $123,480 — when three-quarters of Honolulu households earn less than $100,000.
Additionally, HCDA brags it has "workforce housing." Not so. Real "workforce housing" is for "essential workers" — schoolteachers, firefighters, retail salespersons, secretaries, nursing aides, cashiers; and, in resort areas, cooks, housekeepers and servers. In Honolulu, the median household salary for 15 essential worker occupations is only $48,000 (assuming 1.5 workers per household). Such households would qualify for HUD’s "low-income" or "moderate-income" housing — units priced under $215,000. But HCDA’s figures show 92 percent of units in its pipeline are priced above Honolulu’s median — by definition not "affordable" to half of us.
True affordable and workforce housing should stay affordable, with resales restricted to local workers owning no other property, no "flipping" allowed. Yet HCDA lacks controls on "flipping" — no buyback, no enforcing compliance, limited clawback on early resale — disregarding affordable housing restrictions.
HCDA forgets its charge to steward Kakaako for the community.
Auwe!
