Two measures aimed at giving the state more say in walkable shopping areas and affordable housing that will take root around Oahu’s future rail transit stations advanced out of a joint committee session Monday.
The bills, Senate Bills 2436 and 2437, were approved amid concerns aired by some lawmakers, including Sens. Donovan Dela Cruz (D, Wahiawa-Whitmore-Mililani Mauka) and Suzanne Chun Oakland (D, Downtown-Nuuanu-Liliha), that the state — one of the largest landowners around those station areas — isn’t playing a large enough role in the city-led push to create what’s known as "transit-oriented development" along Oahu’s South Shore.
TOD concepts are guiding local planners in their efforts to design higher-density, more walkable communities surrounding 21 rail stations, particularly within a half-mile radius of those sites.
Officials with the Department of Planning and Permitting testified at a hearing Monday that they’ve spent the past seven years planning TOD communities around the station sites and that they’ve consulted individually with state agencies owning land at the sites there. However, Dela Cruz said state leaders countered that they don’t have a clear idea of what’s envisioned along rail’s 20-mile stretch and that they only see easement and right-of-way agreements with the city for the state-owned land.
Chun Oakland said, "There has to be a group where every landowner is somehow represented." She added, "That would be better planning overall."
City planners expressed concerns that the measures might duplicate planning they’ve already done. But they agreed with Dela Cruz and Chun Oakland that more coordination between city and state would benefit the communities that go up around rail.
SB 2436 would create a 15-member TOD advisory committee comprising planners, architects, area residents and public employees appointed by the Honolulu mayor, the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation and the governor.
SB 2437 would require all state agencies within a half-mile of a rail station to enter into a memorandum of understanding with one another that looks at efforts to create workforce housing around those stations and boost rail ridership.
Legislators passed the two bills out of a joint meeting of the Senate’s committees on Economic Development, Government Operations and Housing; Transportation and International Affairs; and Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs. The measures now go to the Ways and Means Committee.
Meanwhile, city planners intend to bring eight neighborhood TOD plans, aimed at making communities around the transit stops more rail-friendly, to the Honolulu City Council for approval.
Current zoning prohibits much of the mixed-use housing and commercial development envisioned for these station areas, so it has to be changed, Harrison Rue, head of the city’s TOD program, said after the hearing.
The eight plans will cover 19 of the 21 stops (and exclude Kakaako, which is overseen by the state’s Hawaii Community Development Authority). Six of those plans are now in draft form and expected to come before the Council this year, Rue said.
If the Council passes the plans, the zoning amendments to execute those plans will subsequently follow for approval, he added.
"It’s critical that we’re all at the table," said Cindy McMillen, project manager at Pacific Resource Partnership. The pro-rail alliance of island carpenters and contractors submitted testimony supporting SB 2437.
