A measure that would significantly expand Oahu’s affordable housing requirement passed the Honolulu City Council Committee on Zoning and Housing Tuesday.
Bill 58, a cornerstone of Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s strategy to address the city’s affordable housing shortage, would require developers to build affordable units in all new residential projects with more than 10 units.
The city’s current affordable housing policy only affects developers who want to rezone land, requiring them to build units that remain affordable for just 10 years.
Councilwoman Kymberly Pine, who chairs the zoning committee, loosened Caldwell’s original proposal that called for units to remain affordable for 30 years but at the behest of housing advocates, she nixed the option that would have allowed developers to pay a fee instead of actually building affordable units.
Developers, many of who attended Tuesday’s meeting, opposed the measure, fearing regulations will make it unfeasible to build projects.
“I probably have not worked on anything that has been more divided than this particular issue,” Pine said.
Bill 58 is up for final vote Wednesday.
Mayor Kirk Caldwell has worked to develop the Oahu’s first island-wide affordable housing requirement.
Anthony Quintano/Civil Beat
If passed, Honolulu will join local governments across the United States, including other counties in Hawaii, that mandate developers build affordable housing – a policy known as “inclusionary zoning.”
The policy aims to reduce the concentration of poverty by ensuring poor people can afford to rent or buy in wealthier communities.
Pine’s committee approved a companion measure, Bill 59, in January which gives developers incentives to build moderately priced units around planned rail stations.
Caldwell’s administration introduced both policies to create a carrot-and-stick approach to get developers to build affordable units.
The administration introduced the package in May as a way to encourage the development of economically diverse communities around the Oahu’s $9 billion 21-station, 20-mile rail project.
A temporary permitting process that requires City Council approval has so far guided developments near planned rail station and resulted in four high-end towers near Ala Moana with units that vary in affordability.
Manaolana Hotel Place and Residential Condominium, the first project granted a temporary permit, included no affordable housing. The developer instead paid the city $2.4 million in in-lieu fees.
On Tuesday Pine replaced Caldwell’s requirement that units stay price-controlled for 30 years with a tiered system that reduces the length of time units must remain affordable if the number of affordable units increases.
The change only applies to for-sale units, which must be sold to buyers at or below 120 percent of area median income – an individual in Honolulu making $87,950 annually or a family of four with annual income of $125,560.
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Under the system, if a developer sells just 5 percent of the units in a project at affordable rates, those units need to remain affordable for 30 years years.
On the other end of the spectrum, if a developer sells 15 percent of the units at affordable rates, the units can be resold at market rate after just five years.
Local affordable housing advocates touted Cadwell’s original proposal as “revolutionary” and preferred that all units remain affordable 30 years.
“We just can’t afford this public investment in rail to be squandered after five or 10 years,” said Gavin Thornton, the co-executive director of the Hawaii Appleseed Center for Law and Economic Justice.
Developers building projects around planned rail stations will need to double the number of affordable units they build only if they are seeking height or density bonuses.
If a developer offers the affordable units as rentals rather than for-sale, the units must remain affordable for at least 30 years to people making at or below 80 percent AMI – an individual in Honolulu making $58,600 annually.
Among local governments with inclusionary zoning policies, more than 80 percent require that units stay affordable at least 30 years, roughly a third have a 99-year requirement.
Pine said she worked to create a bill that she thinks has a good chance at passing the full council.
“I can’t guarantee a final vote on anything, I can just steer the bill to a place where I think it can pass,” she told Civil Beat in an interview. “The important thing is that we, for the first time in history, passed an affordable housing requirement for every project of a certain amount of units.”
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