There will be no penalty for the developer of a Kakaako high-rise that opened in June without complying with a rule to restrict the reflectivity of its windows.

The board of the Hawaii Community Development Authority accepted a petition Wednesday submitted by Downtown Capital LLC, developer of the 801 South St. Building A, to waive conformance with a rule aimed at limiting the reflectivity of high-rise building glass in Kakaako.

Downtown Capital, a firm led by local affordable-housing developer Marshall Hung, said its 801 South A project complies with the spirit and intent of the rule to limit reflectance, given that the glass isn’t highly reflective and only comprises about one-third of the building’s exterior.

HCDA’s so-called glass rule specifies that tower glass above the ground floor transmit at least 50 percent of light into a building. This specification, known as visible light transmission, or VLT, was adopted in 2011 to prevent towers from being highly reflective in Kakaako, where dense high-rise development is envisioned. The glass on 801 South A has a VLT of 35 percent.

HCDA accepts that no direct correlation exists between VLT and reflectance, and that it’s possible to have highly reflective glass that meets the VLT rule, rendering the rule ineffective.