A FINAL SHOT IN THE CHAMBER POT

A FINAL SHOT IN THE CHAMBER POT: The final “gift” from outgoing Council Chair Kaipo Asing was presented during his final meeting Wednesday.

Unfortunately it was a gift for the developers of Kaua`i Lagoons not people seeking promised affordable housing, who were left holding nothing but a bag of steaming turds.

Along with returning Councilmembers Derek Kawakami, Dickie Chang and presumptive new chair Jay Furfaro, they simply gave away at least 41 of the 82 Waipouli Courtyards affordable housing units, which can now even become transient vacation rentals (TVRs) should the developers so choose.

Outgoing Councilperson Lani Kawahara put it best saying “I can say this because I’m gonna leave- sometimes I feel like I’m sitting at a Chamber of Commerce meeting not necessarily the chamber of the people,” after a failed attempt to at least delay the measure which came as a legal document rather than an amendment to the zoning ordinance- the normal way to alter conditions.

Of course “Mr. Big Save” Kawakami said of Kawahara’s statement “I take that as a compliment”.

An ordinance change would have taken at least four weeks under normal procedure. A deferral would have seen the next council, which takes office December 1, vote on the matter.

The developers brought on the crocodile tears saying they couldn’t rent the units that were to be rented to people making up to $67,000 a year (120% of median income), so not only do they get to rent out the units at market prices to all comers- no matter what income and no matter where they currently live- but they were able to get the council to vote to chuck the whole “10- year affordability” clause.

The project is in a Visitor Destination Area (VDA) where TVRs are permitted, unaffected by the recent TVR grandfathering and ban in non-VDA areas.

Another simply astounding revelation came from the once and future, incoming Councilperson JoAnn Yukimura who urged deferral so that the council could do their “due diligence”- which was apparently extensive.

The shocker was that, despite the fact that 41 of the units are supposed to be rented to people who qualify for HUD Section 8 rental vouchers by making 80% or less of the median income, Waipouli Courtyards has been refusing to rent to Section 8 clients due to a dispute with the County Housing Agency over energy allowances for HUD clients.

The measure- which came from Mayor Bernard Carvalho’s office rather than county housing- was pushed on through by a 4-2 margin with councilperson Tim Bynum joining Kawahara in seeking to refer the measure to the Housing Committee for further due diligence, with lame duck Asing casting the all important fourth vote at his final meeting.

The most objectionable part was that all the councilmembers seemed to buy the developers argument that the affordable housing project- which was given to the county in exchange for the developers being allowed to develop Kaua`i Lagoons- was unable to turn a profit or at least break even “in this economy” so they should be let out of their commitment.

The fact that the Kaua`i Lagoons project as a whole is going to be immensely profitable and that “success” of the affordable housing component should, by all rights, be measured in combination with the resort development, was lost on everybody.

The fact that Waipouli Courtyards is one of the only low income rental housing givebacks the council has ever required (most are for sale) was not even considered, of course.

And just like the recent removal of an affordable housing requirement for Kukui`ula, it went way beyond what the developer had asked for- in this case, according to testimony, the removal of the 10-year buy back.

There was lots of discussion of how the county has first right of refusal should the project go up for sale and a lot of talk about buying it. But of course with the lifting of the condition, the value of the project and therefore the price to the county will soar, doubly screwing the county if and when that happens.

It wasn’t the first time a lame duck screwed the people and it won’t be the last. Voted-out Billy Swain cast the deciding vote in November 2002 for a General Plan update after he and lame ducks Ron Kouchi and Randall Valenciano amended it to put his bosses’ “Princeville Mauka development” on the official development map.

But as for Derek, Dickie and Jay, that’s what you voted for and that’s what you’ve got for the next two years- a developers dream team. All they need is one more vote and that shouldn’t be too hard to find.

IN THE DOG HOUSE

IN THE DOG HOUSE: The race is apparently on as November approaches.

No not any of those races but the council’s desperate mad dash to cater to the smallest and largest whims of developers large and small.

On this week’s agenda are the illegal vacation rentals bill (#2364, Draft 1) set to give oxymoronic (or just plain moronic) mini-developers of ag land the right to build mini-resorts on their mini ag condo lots despite clear state laws that restrict the county from doing so and the farm workers housing bill (#2318, Draft 3) that could, despite 11 “safeguards”, give medium size developers a foot in the door to added density.

But bringing up the rear is an unbelievable gambit (Bill # 2361) by maxi-developer Alexander and Baldwin (A&B) to get out from under an agreement to build and maintain "permanently-affordable, workforce” housing for 90 years which led to the rezoning of their Kukui`ula development in Po`ipu.

It was designed to take the load off the housing market for the new employees of Kukui`ula, mostly for the “gap group” making between 140 and 180% of the median income.

But despite the fact that the condition of zoning was part of a package of “givebacks” that led to the controversial rezoning a few years back, the council is poised to change the term before the housing can be sold at market prices to 25 years because A&B is now sniveling that it’s “unfair” that in the interim the county passed an affordable housing guideline bill that calls for less.

That’s bad enough but what has received less attention than the reduced time element is that fact that under the current agreement Kukui`ula is fully responsible for the housing for the 90-year “life” of the project and in addition there’s a provision that if they can’t
sell the housing at affordable prices they would have to rent it out their qualifying workers or, if no qualified buyers were available, to other workers.

Now, not only is the time of affordability going to be 25 years but the whole responsibility for the housing- including coming up with the money for the buybacks if people want to sell- will rest with the county which will also make a few bucks on the secondary sales although not really enough to make a difference according to the county housing agency which for some absurd reason is supporting the changes.

One of the opponents of the original project, the rezoning and now the reduced housing giveback has been Dr. Jack Lundgren who testified at last week’s planning committee meeting- where the bill remains for now- and gave a rundown of the history of the project and the reasons for his opposition.

Here’s his testimony which lays out the history of the project and reasons why he opposes the changes:

RE: Bill 2361, relating to Kukui`ula 90 year affordable housing.

Please retain the 90 year affordable 75 unit housing agreement that was made when A&B and Kukui`ula Development were granted changes in density to their project in Po`ipu five years ago.

When A&B first was granted rezoning from Agricultural to Resort/Residential back in the ‘80s, (reference their attorney at the time, Walton Hong,) they proposed that approximately 3400 units would be constructed for sale. These were to be marketed to local residents, not wealthy mainlanders and retirees. True, the homes were not to be truly “Affordable”, but they were aimed at middle class locals, like, perhaps, a firefighter and office worker, or construction worker and teacher. This was to be “Gap Group” housing. The idea was that the former housing that these people vacated would become available to other residents who might not yet afford Kukui`ula. This would thereby relieve the housing crunch.

Then about five years ago, A&B partnered with luxury developers from Arizona and formed Kukui`ula Development. They proposed a much less dense project of approximately 1500 units. It sounded good. Nobody wanted beautiful Po`ipu turned into an over-crowded, traffic-choked nightmare. The disadvantage was that now the housing created would be mostly for the very wealthy. Many are to be fancy, view-oriented estate homes, costing in the millions of dollars.

To offset the impact of this massive project, and to provide an increment of affordable housing for workers and for other local residents, Kukui`ula development agreed to construct housing near Port Allen. This was to be housing in the $250,000 to $400,000 range, not cheap, but perhaps manageable.

To assure that this housing be kept in the “Affordable” category, the developers and the Council agreed to the 90 year buy-back clause. This would prevent speculation that would occur if the units were allowed to go to market.

The additional benefit was that this housing was going to minimize traffic by keeping commuting workers closer to the project than they might otherwise be if they had to drive in from Hanama`ulu or Kapa`a. The council worked out a formula as to income and worker priorities. Again, this was all agreed to by the developers.

Now, with a downturn in the real estate market, the developers want to renege on the deal, and allow the affordable housing to go to market after 20 years. That’s not a good idea. We would lose the pool of affordable housing, and be right back where we started. Yes, the market may be slow now, but these things go up and down. As the economy recovers, housing again will become scarce and expensive.

Do we remember what it was like after Iniki? There was plenty of empty housing for sale in a down market. The market recovered, and prices soared.

I admire A&B and their commitment to the Hawaiian community and its young people. I appreciate their underwriting of Hawaii Public Television. If Kukui`ula Development is facing an economic hiccup due to previous business decisions and a slowed economy, perhaps adjustments can be made to the affordable housing development timeline requirement. But please, do not throw out the agreement that would keep the housing affordable for ninety years. We need that to be retained for the continuing health of our community.

A&B’s ridiculous claim that the current economy and housing market should be considered for a 90- or even 25- year project is obvious specious considering that by the time they start the project and get to the actual sales the economy and housing market will most likely not resemble today’s climate as past experience has shown.

And of course if they really wanted to delay it for a couple of years they should be asking for that not trying to bamboozle the dullards on the council.

Yet somehow this developer friendly council that hasn't turned down a developer request during it’s year and a half reign seems poised to do it again.

Many times over the past decade the “current” council members have blamed past councils for the lack of foresight especially when it comes to affordable housing such as the councils of the ‘80’s who approved resorts willy-nilly with virtually no housing requirements or those of the mid to late 90’s who, during the post-Iniki down market decided that we didn’t need to create any future affordable housing after landlords complained about diminishing prices for their rental creating the worst housing crunch in island history in the early to mid ‘00’s.

Don’t expect any of the current crop of glad-handers to cross A&B in a season when A&B routinely crosses their pals’ palms with campaign silver... 40 pieces of it to be exact.

COME AND GET IT

COME AND GET IT: The current crop of council incumbents has been accused of being a do-nothing body what with dog paths and the old boys’ sniping at insurgencies dominating the debates.

But an examination of the record shows that they actually been very busy- undoing whatever crumbs recent councils have thrown us.

One example is the effort in recent months to undo a decade of work to end the circus going on at Spouting Horn that succeeded via a sunset ordinance that passed a few years back.

The Po`ipu sale-a-thon that has evolved since the 70’s when the county allowed a few puka-shell-lei makers to sell their wares, had been given due notice for many years that the party was ending and local people were going to get their park back and a sunset date was as carved in stone as any council action can be,

But all of a sudden, as the deadline approached the crocodile tears of the vendors over losing their lucrative lair of lucre convinced the all-too-gullible council to just say damn it all and make the loss of the park permanent.

Then there’s the pending bill to gut the “vacation rental in non visitor destination areas” sunset ordinance. Despite a year’s work to close all the loopholes the current bill would chuck them out the window leaving enforcement- which was already difficult due to planning department indifference (or worse, complicity with owners)- an impossibility.

There’s also the “Ako” parcel in Waimea which was just granted residential rezoning despite the fact that the neighboring residents had successfully fought the rezoning for many years because the parcel acts as a flood plane and because it had been designated for a future park.

But last Wednesday one of the most insidious bills to undo past efforts came to council’s planning committee in the form of a measure that would chuck a key element of the givebacks that were included in the Kukui`ula development rezoning passed the council a few years back

Despite the quote in today’s paper’s promotional piece- disguised as a real new article by Coo-Coo Slickos- from A&B Properties Executive Vice President Paul Hallin that “(f)or those of you who want to become a developer, I want to share my pain with you”, it apparently will be a little less painful when a measure to remove a provision to insure perpetual affordability of the “workforce housing” required in exchange for the zoning passes the council a few weeks from now.

A&B’s development effort goes back to the 80’s and was universally opposed like no other before or since. But when one of it’s chief opponents who had led the effort to stop it for many years- former Mayor and at the time former councilperson JoAnn Yukimura- came back to the council to the chagrin of many she actually led the bill through the planning committee she chaired at the time.

She says she didn’t see a way to stop it because the votes were there for rezoning to cut the density by about half which actually changed the development from one designed to provide housing affordable by local people to a high priced one affordable only by mainland transplants.

So she instead got the developer to agree to many conditions and givebacks to the community, one of which was a scheme for workforce housing that, among other conditions, called for a 90 year buyback clause whereby the developer would have to buyback the houses at the original price plus inflation from anyone selling and the re-sell it to others whose median income qualified them for the housing.

But now the developer is proposing- and the council is apparently going to give them according to those who spoke at last Wednesday’s meeting- to change it to a 20-year buy-back meaning that after 20 years the housing will revert back to “market price”.

Not only that but, although it isn’t in the current version of the bill, they are asking that the responsibility for the buyback be transferred to the county- a huge expense that the county will certainly not be able to afford.

So get it while you can all you fat cat land rapers. This council will apparently respond to any request for them to bend over only by asking how far.