COM 0200.041 2006-2008 - Laserfiche WebLink

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County of Hawaii, County Council Page z Affordable Housing Requirements for Industrial Developments Based on these findings, Bill t56 proposes to amend Chapter tt of the Hawaii County Code to require that industrial uses fulfill the affordable housing requirements. Specifically, the bill proposes that "industrial enterprises generating more than one hundred employees on a full-time equivalent basis, whether new or an addition or reconstruction to existing facilities, and including one or more businesses at the same or adjacent sites, must earn one affordable housing credit for every four full-time equivalent jobs created." Proposed Bill ><56 is Unconstitutional Bill 156 is unconstitutional because (i) there needs to be a rational nexus justified by thorough and detailed studies of the workforce jobs required and generated by the proposed commercial or industrial development; and it must satisfy a (z) proportional nexus test showing a legal justification in requiring a certain percentage of affordable units. The County must demonstrate a clear rational and proportional nexus between market cost developments and the imposition ofbelow-market cost housing set-asides. To illustrate further, a memo by Professor David Callies of the William S. Richardson School of Law addressing the Kauai County Council during their deliberation of affordable housing requirements for residential developments of five or more dwelling units and "large" resort commercial and industrial developments (see attached), explains the rational and proportional nexus requirement of such set-asides: "As to housing exactions or set-asides on commercial development, the princdple -indeed virtually only-federal case approving such set-asides did so only after the local government reguiring such set-asides engaged in thorough and detailed studies of the workforce jobs required and generated by the proposed commercial development, which requirements were then cut in half-far less than the 40% which the draft County of Kauai Housing Policy Ordinance would require of such commercial development. " Proposed Bill iS6 is Counterintuitive to the Development of Affordable Housing The general rule in Hawaii has been that overly aggressive affordable housing requirements do not result in more affordable units being built. Such requirements result in fewer affordable units being built. As with other counties in the state, the County of Hawaii has an insufficient supply of rentals and for sale units for all income groups. Maui County just recently passed a workforce housing policy to try and address this issue, Kauai County is also in the process of adopting a housing policy, and the State Legislature is also in the process of finding ways to increase the supply of affordable housing. LURF participated in the Joint Legislative Housing and Homeless Task Force, the Mayor of the City and County of Honolulu's Affordable Housing Advisory Committee, and Affordable Housing Task Force created by Senate Concurrent Resolution t35 in zoo4. A common finding in each of these efforts was that there was a need to provide more housing in all income categories, and that one of the major problems