Yes, the Honolulu Department of Planning and Permitting’s (DPP’s) legendary backlog is really a thing. But a slew of “old and idle” applications — i.e., abandoned, untouched for more than a year after being volleyed back to applicants — isn’t helping with appearances.

DPP has begun purging these idle residential and commercial applications — essentially cleaning out the clutter before bringing a new software system, Clariti, online this year to replace its funky old system. Of 3,663 residential apps with “in progress” status, 1,900 of them were idle — that’s more than half.