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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0948.004 2022-2024From: Elizabeth Dunn Sent: Tuesday, NnvemberEi 2024912AM To: Council Testimony Subject: Comments onAffordable Housing Attachments: 11O424Email neRevisions ioHC[neAH.pdf Haik]Policy Committee onPlanning, Land Use and Development: Thank you for the opportunity to provide cOnoP0gnta on Communication 948.2. M8heiO. -� Elizabeth [)UOO 1 Comments on Item 948.2° Chapter11 Ad Hoc Committee Recommendations on revisions to Chapter 11 of the Hawai'i County Code relating to Housing Aloha Policy Committee on Planning, Land Use and Development: Thank you for the opportunity toprovide comments Onthe AdHoc Committee Recommendations oOpotential revisions toChapter 11 Ofthe Howe'iCounty Code related kJ Housing. I have a few comments I'd like the Policy Committee to consider: 1. Excess Housing Credits. I'd like to better understand why o15year grace period io being proposed. Does this time period relate to the number of approved residential development projects th8tCoU|dpctonLial|ybedove|oped?|8ƒher8a[8asOnab|ana|stiODshipor some other expectation that r8|8t8S to the proposed 15 year g[3C8 period? HOvv else might the County benefit from the 15 year grace period? Will the Office of Housing and Community Deve|Oprnent/[)HCnow act os8coordinator Ofexcess credits between developers with this 15year grace period? Please also explain how expanding the 150ile radius to use the excess credits would work, and how far this distance might extend. I understand the desire to expand the distance; however, it feels inappropriate to allow one area to reap the benefit of excess credits when another area is where the excess credit was generated. Perhaps an interim program could be created where there is a maximum distance and a receiving zone for the excess credits to be used. The [JH[|Dwould have ƒOb8involved inoverseeing this program; itwould behelpful to have information from a developer that they were about to put excess credits into use well before the 15year grace period expires. 2. k)better understand why adjacent parcels, with different zoning, would be used for parking. I appreciate the creativity, but this approach needs further study. This idea creates problems - entering into and securing a long term easement for the use ofparking; naduoinQtheanaaufparhingforthe"homt"parceihoritooxvnnoadm.Guohan approach might work if the adjacent parcels are owned by the same property owner (and nullifying the need for an easement); if this isn't the case, I envision long-term issues rather than solutions with this iOLeDtiOO' Side -by -side construction might be a good solution, and require a revision to the Zoning Code to accomplish this idea with new setbacks for this situation. This appears to be worth pursuing. /\similar code rHViSiUO might be required for relaxed landscaping requirements for affordable housing developments. How would this concept work with the proposed General Plan principle of "one water"? It might be appropriate to review the landscape requirements for all of the Zoning Code if there is concern about the use of potable water for landscape irrigation. Three other possibilities are to allow some percentage of xeriscape landscaping, reduce or remove or prohibit any requirement for lawn installations and consider the use Dfrecycled water for irrigation purposes. I'd also appreciate having presentationof an"automatic rezoning" and how that process would work. 3. Rental apartmentsare oneeded housing type onHovvmlIsland. Aesuch, in -lieu fees should not be collected for this type of housing - developers must build the affordable units as part of the market rate rental housing development. There are ways to USdUC8 CO8t8 for the affordable units with finishes and materials. /\|tOrO8LiVe|\\ if private market developer is able to obtain grant funding (with restrictions for affordable units), this can buy down the construction cost for the affordable units. Is there an estimate of the in -lieu per unit fee for a for -sale affordable housing unit? Is it $150,000? $250,000? It would be helpful to the public to understand and know the per unit cost of providing affordable units so there is better knowledge about the cost of creating (bui|ding, and financing) is issue. | suspect that Keyser Marston can assist on the approximate amount ofthe in -lieu fee might be. 4. Itwould behelpful t0further explain the "waiver for innovation" and what this eOf8|S. Equally 88 hEADfU| is to explain how the "wastewater expansion OVednv` is supposed to work. | VVOU|d hope that a "waiver for innovation" or "wastewater expansion overlay" is not applied to areas where significant challenges to cesspool conversions already exist, such as areas immediately adjacent to the ocean, or where topographical challenges make the installation of small gravity feed pump stations difficult or overly oost|y. 5. \8g[ee about water being an island wide issue, and that this issue needs tobe studied further on how to address this for affordable housing. Once the General Plan is adopted, and chapters of the Zoning Code are amended to align with the newly adopted General Plan, perhaps all ofthe landscaping requirements iDall ofthe zoning districts will have be revised to reduce the Deed for potable water for landscape irrigation purposes. AQ8iO. |'d like to suggest that the County consider language that would allow the use of recycled water. The tension is this often requires a separate piping system and ed8diC81ed vv8Ler SOU[oe for this type Ofsystem tobeeffective.