The City Council Zoning and Housing Committee on Wednesday approved a bill mandating that the Department of Planning and Permitting process building permits for one- and two-family dwellings within 60 days, rejecting a plea by city officials to hold up the bill.

Bill 64, which is being fast-tracked by Council members at the behest of building industry leaders, is now poised for a final reading of the full Council, likely at its next meeting on Nov. 14. Industry leaders say lengthy processing times are costing them contract jobs, causing them to shrink their businesses and forcing them to lay off employees.

DPP Acting Director Kathy Sokugawa said a 60-day processing deadline on building permits for one- and two-family dwellings would adversely affect her agent’s ability to process permits for other projects.

“It will mean that other permits, including those that have higher value … than single-family dwellings, such as commercial tower buildings or some of the other (mixed use) projects like Sky Ala Moana may be deferred further in their processing time because we only have so many resources to go around,” Sokugawa said. “So we just want to make sure that we understand what the opportunity costs of this bill is.”

The committee had approved the Sky Ala Moana Condo-Hotel and Residential Development project earlier in the meeting. The project, on the site of the Kenrock Buildings along Kapiolani Boulevard just ewa of Keeaumoku Street, consists of two towers with 300 full-service hotel units, 388 market rate residential units and 90 affordable or workforce housing units.

Council members have attempted to provide more staff positions for DPP, but Sokugawa said a competitive job market is making it difficult for the agency to hire and retain employees.

“There’s a huge chasm between what we’re paying them and the responsibility we’re giving them,” she said. Her staff is working on ways to address that issue but it will take time, she said.

“The Council has made it already very clear in … recently passed bills about the need for more attention to permits, streamlining and permit processing in our department and so we are already embarking on things we can do without legal guidance on this,” Sokugawa said.

Committee Chairwoman Kymberly Pine promised to work with DPP officials on language that might assuage their concerns, but said she could not hold up the bill after hearing from a slew of building industry officials.

“I’m very concerned that we are in a crisis state, that we need to push ourselves and push the city to be innovative and find us solutions,” Pine said. “Sometimes doing things in an expedited manner can help us to do that.”