TOD projects can ramp up economy

Hawaii lawmakers, who have struggled to make inroads in addressing the state’s housing shortage, know that time is running short to do so.

This year, economists are amplifying their call to action, making another pro-development argument. Resolving the housing crisis, they say, could also stave off or soften the fall in the next recessionary period that’s bound to hit before too long.

That’s a powerful policy incentive, but an aggressive development stance still must be balanced with a concern for the island’s resource and infrastructure limits. Land is at a premium statewide, but certainly on congested Oahu, where there are needs for open space and agricultural land to ensure the island remains sustainable.

Development should emphasize efficiency, which is why aggregating housing in dense clusters around the 20-mile alignment of the rail project makes the most sense. City elected officials must move on new initiatives to advance affordable housing projects if transit-oriented development (TOD) is to achieve its potential.

Last week at a legislative briefing in advance of the 2018 session, lawmakers were told that the development of 33,000 additional new homes between now and 2025 would be enough to power up the economy. Most believe that the current construction boom has leveled off and would need this refueling to achieve the projected results: increasing construction jobs by 13 percent.

Another measure of overall economic health, the gross state product, also would grow by more than 0.5 percent, said Carl Bonham, executive director of the University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization. The housing construction effort would have a ripple effect with broad benefits, supporting higher wages and at least slowing the rise in home prices, he said.

Bonham is correct that leaders at both the state and county levels should “behave like it’s a crisis, and then it becomes an opportunity.” That means, among other things, putting needed improvements to infrastructure — roads, utilities, sewers — high on the priority list. This will remove a major hurdle impeding the delivery of housing units and shorten the time before that delivery can happen.

There are some encouraging signs, proposals that deserve full debate and consideration:

>> Gov. David Ige is proposing a sizeable investment in housing this session: more than $123.4 million in new housing projects and $59 million for public housing improvements. Among the projects on the horizon is an affordable rental complex for seniors at the Hawaii Public Housing Authority’s property on School Street.

These are undoubtedly needed — rising rents have left many seniors out in the cold — but it’s a scaled-down version of what the agency had hoped to build there. That’s indicative of the constraints community concerns about infrastructure capacity places on development plans.

>> Progress is being made on the TOD plans for each rail stop. Plans are developed for Waipahu, Pearl City-Aiea, Kalihi and downtown stops, Mayor Kirk Caldwell said.

However. Bills 58 and 59 need to be approved to finish the groundwork for TOD. These measures would finalize requirements for affordable units, as well as the incentives for developers — generally, a boost in allowed height, density and other factors, making the projects easier to pencil out.

>> The Hawaii Interagency Council for Transit-Oriented Development has issued its TOD strategic plan, identifying actions proposed by each county to support TOD.

The public should anticipate a lot of push-and-pull between developers and advocates over how to incentivize housing development for Oahu’s unmet needs. But clearly transit-oriented development represents the most effective way to fill the gap. Surely some housing is being envisioned elsewhere, but TOD is where the focus should remain.