Don’t throw out HCDA baby with bathwater

Kakaako redevelopment, for decades a topic that primarily inhabited blueprints and board- rooms, is now very real to many more people than ever before, and many are unhappy. The uproar has put the state office overseeing the work in the crosshairs, producing an impulse to constrain the agency, or even kill it.

The plain fact is, there is a need for the Hawaii Community Development Authority to exist, and even to have some measure of autonomy. But there still is room for improvements in accommodating community input, over- seeing development standards and defining how the authority itself is governed.

The subject is central to a package of eight bills introduced by state Rep. Scott Saiki, as well as numerous other pieces of legislation.

Saiki said the initiative sprang from his sense that it’s time to step back and reflect on the agency and its mission, a sense drawn from his own experience at HCDA hearings and from what constituents have said.

Everyone — including casual passersby but principally the residents who moved into the neighborhood years ago — are seeing more detailed drawings and, finally, some of the new construction underway.

And it’s making many very outspoken people very uneasy.

Building height, especially where it obstructs existing views, has drawn fire. Critics have objected strongly to plans that could wedge buildings together too closely. Others see luxe apartments being shopped around to a far upscale, global market and worry that even the more moderately priced units will be snapped up by investors, as well.

All but one of Saiki’s bills will be heard at 8:30 a.m. Saturday in conference room 325 at the state Capitol. The exception is House Bill 1862, which would require conformance to the city’s reserve and affordable-housing requirements and would amend the definition of some key terms.

It’s unclear why this bill was singled out — Saiki said it’s because its assignment to an additional committee meant it would not clear a deadline to progress any further. But he said other measures could be vehicles for a discussion on affordability standards.

Anthony Ching, HCDA’s executive director, said that since the agency was created in 1975, 2,137 housing units have been built for those making anywhere between 60 percent and 140 percent of the area area median income (AMI). Ching said that the agency would implement a legislative directive to lower the limit.

In fact, it’s time that the Legislature acknowledge where the need for Honolulu housing is most acute, and act to make units for purchase as well as rentals affordable to more working families. The formula will have to strike a balance, however, for well-designed projects to pencil out.

Other bills seek to improve community engagement and have merit. For example, HB 1860 would provide for a contested-case hearing procedure that would allow people "adversely affected by an action or decision" to get an administrative review. This would be a useful provision to protect the wider community interest in the redevelopment.

Various measures propose more stringent height limits and density standards, a move arising from the concern that too many variances from existing standards have been granted. The bar for granting such variances should be higher. However, Saiki acknowledged, correctly, that some allowance for exceptions to rules must remain in place.

HB 1866 would enact some needed improvements in the procedure for filling seats on the authority board, involving some input from legislators in forming the list of nominees for the governor to tap. Saiki is right that four of the people on the board of nine should not be members of the governor’s Cabinet, and that greater diversity is needed.

Saiki also said that repealing the authority is an unlikely outcome, adding that it seems doubtful that the City Council would do a better job. He’s correct about that. And the Legislature itself has proven to be a rather fickle overseer of Kakaako, acting one year to restrict residential development to the mauka side of Ala Moana Boulevard and this year considering a bill to reverse that decision.

But nearly four decades since the creation of this agency with oversight of Honolulu’s most prized real estate, it’s time that the public had the discussion that’s planned this week.

Saturday’s hearing is sure to be a lively one. Since HCDA is about the creation of community, that community needs a more potent role in the process.