Posted on: Tuesday, August 14, 2001
Kaka'ako developer fee waived for three years
By Andrew Gomes
Advertiser Staff Writer
The agency governing redevelopment in Kaka'ako yesterday temporarily suspended a fee that developers were required to pay to finance below-market housing in the area.
The Hawaii Community Development Authority board unanimously approved a three-year waiver of the fee, which board members believed was discouraging developers of moderate and luxury residential high-rises from starting new projects.
At a public hearing last month, the proposed waiver was opposed by 18 people, including representatives of the Legal Aid Society of Hawai'i and the Affordable Housing and Homeless Alliance. Eleven people, including developers, testified in support of the proposal.
Matt Akamu, a staff planner with the authority, told the board yesterday that most of the testimony for retaining the fee was based on the need for low-income housing. Rather, he said, the fee's purpose is to encourage housing for people who earn too much to qualify for low-income units but not enough to afford market-price units.
The fee rule applies to projects mauka of Ala Moana Boulevard.
The fee, which has been adjusted or temporarily suspended several times in the past, is set at 4 percent of units priced above $450,000, and progressively decreases to zero for units under $319,000 based on last year's median income for Honolulu households and interest rates. The thresholds are somewhat higher this year.
Only developers who want a zoning tradeoff that allows building higher than 45 feet and up to 400 feet had to pay the fee that allowed the state to finance construction of below-market housing. Developers also had the option of supplying below-market housing equivalent to 20 percent of their residential or commercial projects.
Under the fee rule, 3,200 units have been built since 1982. Of those, 1,400, or 57 percent, have been "affordable." But since 1997, no projects incurring the fee have been built, except a luxury tower by Nauru Phosphate Royalties (Honolulu) Development Inc., which satisfied the rule in 1996 by building the "affordable" residential complex 1133 Waimanu.
