State lawmakers clashed earlier this year with a state agency over how tall buildings in Kakaako should rise. Now the disagreement will cost up to $300,000 in state funds.
The board of the Hawaii Community Development Authority voted Tuesday to approve spending $300,000 to revise a draft environmental impact statement and its related transit-oriented-development plan that envisioned buildings as tall as 700 feet near planned city rail stations in Kakaako.
Earlier this year the Legislature passed House Bill 1866, which mandated several changes to HCDA rules, including capping new building heights at 418 feet. HCDA is the agency regulating development in Kakaako.
Gov. Neil Abercrombie, who in late 2011 endorsed building a 650-foot tower on state land in Kakaako, signed the bill into law in April.
HCDA Executive Director Anthony Ching told agency board members that it would be prudent to revise the draft EIS and transit-oriented-development plan to conform with the new law.
Ching said someone could potentially challenge the validity of the documents, threatening future development.
Rodney Funakoshi, planning program administrator with the state Office of Planning and an HCDA board member, said the EIS should still be valid given that the maximum height allowed is less than what is considered in the EIS.
Ching said many calculations based on a 700-foot limit, such as building forms and traffic impacts, would be inaccurate.
"I think (the document) should be as precise as possible," Ching said.
After the discussion, Funakoshi decided to approve the spending with other board members in a 7-0 vote.
HCDA started work preparing the EIS in late 2012 at a cost of $1.5 million. The document was almost ready for publication in February, according to Ching, but was put on hold after a slew of bills aimed at overhauling the agency were introduced at the Legislature.
The bills, which included proposals stop new tower approvals and abolish the HCDA, were introduced following public complaints largely from residents who live in existing Kakaako towers and expressed concerns over impacts from new towers and how the HCDA was applying its rules.
The transit-oriented-development plan proposed up to three 700-foot towers in Kakaako provided that they would be "exemplary iconic buildings with exceptional public benefit."
The EIS and transit-oriented-development plan were preliminary steps to raising the height limit in Kakaako. The HCDA also needed to hold public hearings on the proposed changes and obtain approval from its board.
The HCDA floated the idea of a few 700-foot towers in May 2013 when it released a summary of draft rules for development around planned rail stations in the area.
Under the HCDA’s draft plan, buildings as high as 550 feet also were proposed in some areas of the roughly 450-acre Kakaako mauka region bounded by Ala Moana Boulevard and South King, Punchbowl and Piikoi streets. The height limit prior to passage of HB 1866 was about 400 feet.
