ADUs bill is manifestation of poor city planning

The City Council will vote Wednesday on Bill 20, which would allow accessory dwelling units (ADUs) and has been called the “silver bullet” to solve Honolulu’s housing problems.

Instead, it would be a major zoning change that would eliminate all single-family residential zoning districts. It would be a zoning change that would potentially double the number of units in our community and overburden the existing infrastructure, without guaranteeing that rents would be “affordable.”

If the city administration is serious about adding residential units, illegal transient vacation units (TVUs) should be put back into residential use immediately by enforcing current zoning laws.

A search of the vacation rental site vrbo.com lists 3,600 units on Oahu available for short-term rental.

Why doesn’t the city consider adding these units to the residential housing market as part of the solution?

The very existence of more than 3,600 illegal units demonstrates the lack of will to enforce zoning laws.

Homeowners purchased their properties understanding that they would be moving into single-family residential lots. Bill 20 would turn all neighborhoods into multi-family residential zoning districts.

This immense change has been proposed without substantial research on how neighborhoods would be affected, how many units would be built, and whether current infrastructure would be able to accommodate additional dwellings and residents.

This type of knee-jerk proposal is indicative of the lack of planning that has created the current housing crisis.

According to a May 21 letter written by George Atta, director of the city Department of Planning and Permitting, “We do not have any projected population figures related directly to ADUs, or the ability to forecast how many ADUs are likely to be built.”

Further, DPP has no idea how many lots are even eligible for ADUs.

Where we do have plans, they are ignored.

Bill 20 is contrary to the East Honolulu Sustainable Communities Plan, 2.2.6: “Zoning and other community guidelines will need to ensure that neighborhood character is not adversely altered by the incremental intensification of existing residential lots.”

It also is more than incremental, as it would immediately allow for doubling the density.

Increased density leads to an increasingly crowded neighborhood. It results in less green open space, more cars parked on already crowded streets (Bill 20 requires only one off-street space), more people, more traffic and more noise. All of these factors lead to a decrease in the quality of life.

Older neighborhoods, those with already aging and inadequate infrastructure, are more likely to be adversely affected.

Newer neighborhoods and planned communities have property covenants or restrictions, so ADUs would not be allowed.

Honolulu’s housing problem is a result of bad planning. Bill 20 is no exception. It proposes to eliminate all single-family residential lots and make them multi-family.

In doing so, the city has failed residents by proposing to increase the density of some of our communities, with no assurance that rents would be affordable; and has allowed more than 3,600 units to be used for visitor accommodations.