Oahu voters in next month’s general election will decide whether to amend the Honolulu City Charter with new provisions affecting affordable housing, development, land management and the Office of Council Services. In order to pass, each of the four proposals on the Nov. 8 ballot will need more than 50% voter approval in a “yes” or “no” choice.
Affordable housing
City Charter question No. 1 on the ballot would double the amount of money directed to the Affordable Housing Fund from real property tax revenues. The fund would receive 1% of that revenue, or about $16 million. That’s a bump up from the one-half of 1%, or about $8 million, as it stands.
The Affordable Housing Fund provides rentals for people making 60% or less of the median household income in Honolulu, but expanding its coffers would enable development of more housing projects, according to a City Council resolution detailing the proposed City Charter amendment.
Recently, the city steered about $30 million from the fund toward constructing nearly 1,000 units across six affordable housing projects.
Planning Commission
City Charter question No. 2 is an attempt to diversify the Planning Commission. Although the current Charter sets no expertise requirements for any of its nine members, the panel’s makeup has skewed toward those with real estate and development interests.
If passed, the proposed amendment would change that, at least marginally, by requiring that four of the Planning Commission’s nine members each bring a different skill set to bear: one with experience in Native Hawaiian customary and traditional practices, Native Hawaiian law or traditional Hawaiian land use; one with expertise in land use planning, principles and policies; one skilled in land development and construction; and the other with knowledge of climate change and sea-level rise causes, effects and solutions, or environmental preservation and protection.
Since the Planning Commission has no shortage of members experienced in land use planning, construction and development, the amendment would likely bring aboard new voices in slots designated for climate change and Native Hawaiian culture, law and land use.
Water, lands fund
City Charter question No. 3 would provide operating dollars for the city’s Clean Water and Natural Lands Fund, which receives a 0.5% allocation from real property tax revenues. In the current fiscal year, that amount is anticipated to be $7.5 million.
The fund allows the city to purchase real estate and easements for conservation, outdoor recreation and other purposes but doesn’t provide money to spruce up the properties for public uses such as parking lots and restrooms or landscaping and environmental remediation.
If the proposed amendment passes, the Clean Water and Natural Lands Fund would be allowed to spend 5% of its budget — $376,212 this year — on maintenance, operations and management of the lands it acquires for the city.
Without the proposed Charter amendment, “We’d end up in a situation where the lands or the waters couldn’t be used,” said William Reese Liggett, a member of the Clean Water and Natural Lands Advisory Commission that selects properties for purchase. “We’re the only county that wasn’t authorized to put the land and water to use.”
The fund has been used to acquire the Maunawila Heiau property in Hauula and its conservation easement, the Ka Iwi Coast mauka lands, and the conservation easement for Kanewai Spring, according to the fund website. Putting a conservation easement on land prevents its development.
Council services
City Charter question No. 4 would write the Office of Council Services into the Charter.
The OCS researches and drafts legislation for the Honolulu City Council and is the only legislative agency not formally established in the City Charter.
While the Charter recognizes the City Clerk’s and City Auditor’s offices, it grants only the Council the authority to establish an Office of Council Services.
The ballot proposal asks voters whether they want to see the scattered provisions that created OCS centralized in the City Charter.
“We had been around since 1973, and the Office of the City Auditor was established roughly 15 years ago. So they’ve been around a lot less (time) than we have, but they’re recognized in the Charter,” said OCS Director James Williston. “That’s the main thrust, to put us on the same plane as the other legislative branch agencies of the city.
“The Charter amendment doesn’t really change our functions much. It just recognizes the same functions we’ve had since the beginning, which is to provide legal and other policy research for the Council.”
The amendment would also explicitly grant OCS the authority to provide the City Council with legal advice.
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