2008-10-03 THONPA - Laserfiche WebLink

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you know, that was one thing. The other one, as was kind of noted in the correspondence between the Planning Director and the applicant, you know, relates to the affordable housing, the affordable housing requirement. And, you know, I think that the Planning Director’s note is very clear on that. If I can just direct the Commissioners to his letter dated October 24 (2004) to Dennis Hirota, who coincidentally is presently a member of the Board of Regents right now. In the second paragraph, and I’ll just kind of read it if you can’t find it. It just says that “The proposed rental rates would be considerably in excess of the amounts considered ‘affordable’ by Chap. 11,” which is the Affordable Housing Code. “Only the Council, at the time of rezoning, could decide to exempt this project from Chap. 11 requirements, and the administration, at this time, cannot commit to support this waiver. The affordable rental rates were set with a different model in mind -- a family renting a unit -- rather than students sharing apartments, so there may be grounds to adjust what should be considered affordable.” And the reason why is that, you know, if you look at the schedule that they have right now, you know, for like at the 120 percent of median income level, you know, the rental rates would probably run like around, according to the table, would run for a three-bedroom for example, $1,978 inclusive of your utilities. However, like what the applicant has in mind would be, you know, charging by room per the students. So at that time when they were discussing it with the County they were talking about $975, $980 per student per month per room. So that increases the threshold, you know. So what, you know, we would like to have the Commission and ultimately the Council consider is that if this project is developed into an affordable housing project that there be exemptions from the affordable housing requirement because this is really like a unique situation that was not really considered by the current Affordable Housing Code. So in that regard what we’re suggesting, which was my last handout, was that if Conditions P and Q could be amended by just including this as a rider; and that would read like “This condition shall not be applicable to any and all units on the subject property that are planned to accommodate students attending the University of Hawaii at Hilo system and other institutions of higher learning within the city of Hilo. This determination shall be made by the Planning Director upon consultation with the UHH, University of Hawaii at Hilo, prior to issuance of final plan approval.” So what this does is that if the project is, in fact, going to be utilized for student housing and the Director then has this kind of discussion or confirmation or affirmation from the University of Hawaii at Hilo that the project will be for affordable housing, then they would like to get relief. Alternatively, if it doesn’t turn out to be, for some reason Place Properties or whoever is ultimately the developer of this site decides to do something else, maybe just do a conventional, you know, apartment rental or whatever then, you know, we can feel that, yes, the affordable housing and the fair share requirements should be left. So that’s all we’re asking for right now. So if there are any questions that the Commissioners may have of myself or members of the board, I’d be more than happy to answer. WATANABE: I have a question for the Director. I can see the need for student housing, and I think you would probably share that feeling. Is it overly burdensome though to insert the proposed language and make that determination, or do you feel that’s something that you could endorse? YUEN: Well, I can’t give a blanket endorsement of it at this time, but let me make a couple of suggestions on these issues, one of them on the affordable housing side. There is a EXHIBIT D 4