2014-11-06 Cost of Government Commission Minutes

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“Another similar pre-approval long standing in Chapter 5 of the Hawai‘i County Code relating to Building is the package home. A pre-approval of a standard design of homes allows a rapid permit review and approval. Large and small examples have been submitted for consideration and currently three have been approved for the calendar year 2014. These range from $190,000 to $1.2 million in single homes. Designers, developers, lumber yards, and contractors have been encouraged to submit homes for approval. This will encourage rapid permit approvals and help in employing the construction industry in a consistent manner.” Ms. Kelly agrees; she said package homes are fairly affordable compared to contracting a contractor and thinks those kinds of permits should be pre-approved being that the homeowner can built it themselves. Ms. Kelly is in agreement to expand the list of the pre-approved package homes that simplifies the line of waiting along with those permits for custom homes. She stated when people pull a permit for a house, a value has to be given of what they are going to do whether it is remodeling or building and thinks there should be separate categorized sections for remodeling, building under $100,000 or $200,000 and there should be another category for $500,000+. Ms. Espejo agrees. Motion and Vote : Mr. Mitchell moved to include this recommendation into the draft report subject to additional language consideration. The motion was seconded by Ms. Kelly and all commissioners present voted aye. K. Continue to expand IT permit processing and inspections which will provide access to history. Ms. Maddox said came out of Planning and Public Works but looks like it got truncated. This had to do more of expanding the on-line permit processing procedure. Ms. Kelly asked what kind of permits. Mr. Kierkiewicz said when they spoke to Randy Kurohara, this is something already in the works. They were doing a tiered system so that small project, medium size and large projects would have different avenues. Ms. Maddox it’s worth going back and clarifying for the sake of today’s agenda. She said to remove this recommendation from the agenda to get clarification; all Commissioners agreed. L. Allow building permit application requests from computers and smart phones. Ms. Kelly asks if this is an application. Ms. Maddox replied yes and allows permits to be submitted from smart phones. Ms. Kelly wanted to know what the difference is from submitting a permit from a smart phone or a computer. Ms. Kierkiewicz asked if the department head made this recommendation. Ms. Maddox replied yes, it came from the 2010 report and also in the recent responses. Mr. Mitchell said it came from Ms. Leithead Todd, Planning Department, in 2010. Ms. Kierkiewicz noted using a computer or smart phone are both internet based but seems ridiculous to want to be able to submit a building permit via a smart phone. Ms. Kierkiewicz wanted to clarify that people in that department should be able to get 16