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It’s not usually described in these terms, but Gladys Quinto Marrone sees her role as chief executive officer of the Building Industry Association of Hawaii, at least in part, as looking out for regular folks.
Right out of law school, her first job was on the staff of the late Congresswoman Patsy Mink, where she said advocacy for justice was top of mind.
Making it easier for homes to be built at a range of price points, she added, serves the marketplace as a whole and helps the would-be homeowner.
She doesn’t see that as too far afield from the public-interest work of Mink’s office.
Marrone, 48, has been in the job for about 18 months. Recently the group has been busy working to support the city’s “accessory dwelling unit” (ADU) initiative, enabling homeowners to add a rental to their own residential property.
“When the mayor announced the new law, we supported it,” she said. “It provides rental housing that is desperately needed. It provides for seniors who can age in place. … And it also provides additional income opportunities for families.”
“If we want to see the type of growth that is being painted in pictures, and the vision of accommo-dating the projected growth in urban areas, then we need to think big. And infrastructure is a huge factor in allowing those things to happen.”
Gladys Quinto Marrone
Chief executive officer, Building Industry Association of Hawaii
The reason it hasn’t taken off as hoped is the lack of infrastructure capacity in some areas, and the high fees. The BIA endorses the city’s more recent bid to reduce the fee burden.
Marrone and her husband (a professor at Hawaii Tokai International College) bought their own home in Ewa Beach, the leading edge of the second-city growth. She’s a graduate of Farrington High School, the University of Southern California (Marrone started out her working life as a city planner in Orange County) and the University of Hawaii law school.
At home, she loves to cook: Culinary school might have been her first choice if her parents hadn’t frowned on the idea.
“They’re from the Philippines,” she said with a smile,”and higher education was a priority.”
QUESTION: What bills are your primary concern this legislative session?
ANSWER: We have one priority bill left at this point, and that is House Bill 2027 … and that would create an alternative funding mechanism for infrastructure that serves a regional purpose.
Historically, government usually identifies an area for growth and puts in the required infrastructure to support the growth. But lately the developers would put in the infrastructure.
Q: In exchange for permits?
A: Yeah, that’s part of the requirements for the development. But what happens, and what we’re finding, is that the developer — say they’re creating a community — they provide infrastructure off-site, as in roads and stuff of that nature, that gives a regional benefit.
But the cost is only borne by the people that are buying the new homes. So it’s trying to find a way to make it so that the cost to developers is not so significant up front, and be able to pay it back over time. …
It’s a revolving fund. It would allow private investment to come in and invest in infrastructure. They would get a return on their money, depending on how things turn out with the infrastructure.
Q: How do you feel about the chances of that bill passing?
A: We’ve introduced that bill, I think, for at least the last three years. But seeing the need for more affordable housing — the need for just housing in general, which is what we advocate for — the biggest barrier has been the lack of infrastructure. …
So there has been growing momentum in both houses of the Legislature to have something like that, to provide for infrastructure. Even the government agencies that do affordable housing or rentals, they say that infrastructure has been the biggest barrier for them moving forward.
Q: Is it the more remote projects on other islands where it’s more of a problem? Or is it statewide?
A: I think both. On Oahu, the last two communities coming on board would be Ho’opili and Koa Ridge. They have to put in infrastructure, whether it be roads and sewers.
But within our urban district, if we look at what’s happening along with the transit line, and all the different train stations, envisioning higher density, all of these types of developments, … infrastructure is still a very much-needed aspect of development in those areas.
Q: So, it’s the capacity that’s needed?
A: It’s definitely capacity. There are places in urban Honolulu that are lacking capacity. But our bill would really be focusing in areas that support growth. …
Q: Are there any legislative disappointments?
A: Yes. Going into the legislative session, we had three top priorities. First one, our top priority, related to residential fire sprinklers, basically in new single-family homes.
There is a national effort to require all new single-family homes to have residential fire sprinklers. Their argument is that materials that are being used — whether it’s carpets, draperies, furniture — they tend to be more flammable. …
But statistics show that a working smoke alarm is the best way to get a family out — a working smoke alarm and an escape plan out of a home. Our concern is that new homes are being built safer, with better fire-retardant materials. …
We’re not opposed if a family wants to have it, but requiring it for each new home would increase the price of a home by tens of thousands of dollars. …
We want the home to be safe, and builders adhere by certain codes that get updated every three years, to make the homes safer. But we want it to be reasonable. …
Q: Is it usually available as an option before construction?
A: No. Not here, it hasn’t been. Other states, or homebuilders associations like ours, have conducted consumer surveys in new communities. … This one area, Illinois somewhere, the top option that home buyers selected was a finished basement. …
For me personally, every time I leave my house I’ll make sure things are shut down, stove’s not on. There’s some human accountability that people should be practicing. And nothing’s going to be 100 percent safe, right?…
Q: This is a national push? Who’s pushing it?
A: It’s being pushed by the National Fire Protection Association. …
In 2012 when we started this effort, we were successful in passing a law that prohibited the counties from mandating residential fire sprinklers. It sunsets in 2017. We were trying to get that extended or make it permanent. …
Q: So you could go back at it next year?
A: We will. … The other one we were working on was related to transit-oriented development and infrastructure, combining the two, and having some sort of authority oversee facilitating infrastructure around transit-oriented development on state-owned lands.
So again, our whole push is really, if we want to see the type of growth that is being painted in pictures, and the vision of accommodating the projected growth in urban areas, then we need to think big. And infrastructure is a huge factor in allowing those things to happen. …
Q: Can the industry locally keep up with the construction boom?
A: Well, there’s a lot of construction, like you said. I’ve heard of labor shortages, maybe at a higher level of labor. … But the cost of construction, we’ve been high for a long time. …
Q: So, the labor shortage is not what you would consider critical, needing to bring more people into the labor force?
A: I can’t really speak to a lot of the commercial construction that’s happening. But some of our developers have — I think it’s more the quality of labor they’re getting. But you’ve just got to do what it takes to get your project out, get it done.
Q: Is this a problem for the association, that training might help?
A: I have not really sensed anything from our particular association. But we do have training here at BIA. A lot of continuing education; downstairs now is the OSHA training, recertification for your safety. …
We don’t have an official apprenticeship training, so we created a pre-apprenticeship training. A lot of the individuals that come to these classes are from underrepresented communities. They just need to have a G.E.D. or equivalent, a high school diploma …
We prep them so that they can successfully enter an apprenticeship program. So whatever that takes: basic carpentry or math skills that are required to be successful. …
Q: I imagine there’s a limited number of construction companies that can enter the industry locally because of the challenges here.
A: If I’m going to focus on what I know best, it would be the housing industry. It’s very challenging for varying sizes of developers to be successful. We have large developers that are able to stand the test of time, I guess, in the sense that our entitlement process can be quite lengthy. And the time is a huge factor in the cost. …
It’s a very difficult climate to develop. It takes a long time. Just to carry the cost of the land over years.
Q: You were with the (development advocacy group) Land Use Research Foundation, right?
A: I was with LURF for a couple years, which helped me understand what developers do, the amount of risk that they take. It’s always a negative, I think, when you hear the word “developer. ” But developers build communities, they build homes, they build public facilities, they build infrastructure. So they contribute to our communities by doing all of those things.
Q: Your sense is that developers get a bad rap?
A: I don’t think I’m wrong when I say that. That’s the sense I get. I think people suspect developers make all this money. To me, there’s nothing wrong with that. And you don’t know how much money they make. There’s always risk involved.
I always say that it’s no different from having a corner mom-and-pop store in business. Nobody goes in to lose money. If there’s increasing cost for whatever — inventory, shipping — that cost is going to get passed on.
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