Much like the infamous months-long wait to obtain a building permit in Honolulu, city Department of Planning and Permitting Director Dawn Takeuchi Apuna said even the data detailing the problematic permit backlog was not available.
“Usually I have a PowerPoint and a chart,” she told the City Council’s Committee on Planning and the Economy as it met Thursday morning, “but the staffer that collects that data for me was on vacation, so I don’t have that specific data on where we are at with the backlog.”
Instead, she touted DPP’s new high-tech plan to track, in real time, the status and whereabouts of someone’s building permit application.
“Some of the technology that’s coming up will give us instant dashboards where I will be able to look on my computer every morning and see exactly where permits are and how much (are) in different areas,”
she said.
At a March 27 news conference, the DPP director
announced some of those technological initiatives — including those using artificial intelligence — to provide what the city contends will be automation, transparency and guidance to streamline the permitting process.
To that end, DPP will move away from its late 1990s-era POSSE permitting software system and launch new software that meets “current industry standards” and “will put us on the leading edge,” she said.
The new system, CLARITI — led by Speridian Technologies — is an “all-in-one permitting platform,” she said.
The system, up and running since February, is a
$5.6 million project that’s
expected to be completed in 18 months, or by fall 2025, the city says.
At Thursday’s committee meeting, Takeuchi Apuna said DPP is “in the sixth week of the discovery phase” for CLARITI. “And later this month, we’ll move into the development phase,” she added.
Money for that system originated with Honolulu’s receipt of $386 million in 2021 from the Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Fund, or FRF, as part of the federal government’s $1.3 trillion American Rescue Plan Act package, city officials said.
Another system, ProjectDox from Avolve Software that launched in July, is an ePlans upgrade. That project will allow building permit applicants to add “interested parties” — such as contractors or landowners — to view permit status and city comments, the city says.
“(It’s) a six-month implementation,” she said. “It was kicked off last week, and that will bring sooner relief as far as transparency of where your permit is.”
She added that there “will likely be new permits coming in, once the implementation happens. That’s still kind of uncertain. But it should provide some benefit in the next six months.”
That system upgrade, also paid for with FRF money, cost $206,000, the city says.
In addition, DPP will implement a pilot project, CivCheck, which uses AI-based software for building plan and code reviews.
“(It’s) a five-month project, and we are two months in, and we begin beta testing next week,” she said. “And that one is very interesting and exciting because it helps to guide the applicant through the code review, and helps the code reviewer see exactly on the plans, the applicable code and how or if the applicant is compliant.”
Takeuchi Apuna said DPP hopes to forge an agreement with Granicus over its short-term rental platform “that will help with enforcement and registration.”
“That will be a six-month implementation,” she said. “The purchase order has been executed, and we’re just pending notice to proceed. So we’re anticipating a kickoff next week.”
She noted that another outside contract, involving a “request for bid” proposal for code reviewers of commercial projects, went out for bid last month.
“And April 15 will be the deadline for offers,” she said. “That contract will be a 22-month contract, but we will be able to take from different eligible contractors, not necessarily just one.”
However, details and associated costs for Granicus and the new code reviewers were not mentioned at the meeting. After the meeting, DPP did not immediately respond to questions over those respective contracts.
Summing up efforts to transform DPP, Takeuchi Apuna likened it to modern air travel.
“It’s like Hawaiian Airlines flying over the Pacific with major engine problems and we have angry passengers and customers, but we continue to serve as we make these major changes,” she said. “So getting to this point, with all these procurement, it’s kind of a major milestone.”
She added, “You don’t just pay someone and think this gets done, it takes a lot of procurement, working with the vendors and consultants, especially staff being part of that whole process.”
In the next 18 months, she noted, “all of these
projects should be fully
implemented.”
“It will be a tough and heavy lift, and mostly for staff,” she said. “They are the ones who are helping to move this mountain and to really see these things through.”
At the meeting, Council Vice Chair Esther Kia‘aina questioned whether new code reviewers would only be limited to commercial permits.
“You are going to also address the residential permits as well, correct?” Kia‘aina queried.
Takeuchi Apuna replied, “Well, with residential we
believe that the backlog … will actually be covered.”
“You have it under control?” Kia‘aina asked.
“We think so,” Takeuchi Apuna said.
During a special meeting in July of the same Council committee, Takeuchi Apuna told the panel her staff had managed to knock down the backlog of 3,600 applications awaiting pre-screening by nearly 70%.
“Today we’re at about 1,100,” she said in July. “So that’s a big drop, and I think the staff are working so hard on that.”
On average, she said,
the permit review process had gone from almost 10 months — or nearly 300 days — down to just about six months, or less than
200 days.
As of November 2022,
the backlog to pre-screen a building permit application — namely, to verify that building plans meet the city’s submittal requirements — had dropped from six months to about 2-1/2 months, she said last year.
But during his fourth State of the City address on March 14, Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi said DPP’s prior backlog of pre-screen applications was no more.
“A year ago, I stood here and explained how DPP was using AI to pre-screen applications and that the average pre-screen wait time had gone from an average of five months to an average of five weeks,” he said during his address. “Today it takes three days — and the backlog has been completely eliminated.”
On March 27, Takeuchi Apuna confirmed the overall permit backlog at DPP continues.
“After we did the pre-screen backlog and got rid of that it has shifted,” she said. “As far as numbers, I think we’re kind of holding steady, I think we’re holding steady at 12 months for commercial and maybe six months for residential; I think that’s kind of held steady.”
The Honolulu Star-Advertiser has asked DPP for the number of backlogged permits awaiting review but had not received that information by deadline Thursday.
