Hawaii lawmakers open to taller high-rises

Hawaii lawmakers have reopened a debate over Kakaako building heights by proposing to allow at least two exceptionally tall towers. The move came five years after they blocked a state agency from raising the height limit.

A state House committee passed a bill Feb.1 that would permit towers as high as 768 feet, nearly twice the current 418-foot limit that the Legislature made law in 2014.

The purpose of House Bill 1559 is to create a “signature urban skyline” featuring wider tower height variety.

“While the Honolulu skyline is undergoing a renaissance with new designs and architecture, the Legislature finds that the existing artificial height limit of four hundred eighteen feet for buildings in the mauka area (of Kakaako) will create a relatively uniform and undesirable ‘flat’ top to the Honolulu urban skyline,” the bill states.

The bill would allow one tower up to 768 feet per master plan approved by the Hawaii Community Development Authority if the building is near a rail station site and provides extra public benefits negotiated with HCDA.

Currently, two master plans would qualify.

One covers 29 acres that Kamehameha Schools owns and intends to fill with 2,750 homes in a mix of midrise buildings and seven towers in an area dubbed Our Kakaako. To date, two towers and three midrises have been built.

The other master plan covers 60 acres that Howard Hughes Corp. owns and intends to fill with 4,500 homes mainly in 16 towers in an area dubbed Ward Village. So far, three towers have been finished and two are under construction.

Todd Apo, senior vice president of community development in Hawaii for Texas-based Hughes Corp., encouraged lawmakers to pass HB 1559.

In written testimony, Apo said, “Providing flexibility to HCDA to consider one signature building within each master planned area that exceeds the current height limitation is compatible with, and will further, the Legislature’s and the HCDA’s vision to discourage uniformity, monolithic structures and urban sprawl within Kakaako — and instead, and in partnership with the state — encourage developers to create a vibrant, livable, walkable community filled with a variety of innovative building types, uses, densities and community amenities.”

Kamehameha Schools didn’t testify on the bill and declined to comment on it Monday last week.

Downtown resident Lynne Matusow said in written testimony that the bill’s justification of preventing a flat-topped skyline is “absurd” and called the bill a developer reward.

Another critic, Douglas Valenta, said in written testimony that the bill would produce an overdeveloped skyline and crowding. “Stop the madness,” he urged. “Vote ‘no’ and throw out this bill.”

HCDA, which has had a rocky relationship with the Legislature in recent years, took no position on the bill.

The Legislature created HCDA in 1976 to revitalize Kakaako, which at the time was a largely industrial area with substandard roads, sewers and other infrastructure that the city was poorly equipped to improve.

HCDA created zoning rules and upgraded infrastructure to attract dense urban development.

In much of Kakaako, developers for decades could build up to 400 feet, or 418 feet including rooftop equipment, in return for public benefits that include creating park space and making 20 percent of residential units affordable to residents with moderate to high-moderate incomes.

Raising the height limit was promoted in 2011 by then-Gov. Neil Abercrombie, who announced a plan to build a 650-foot tower on a state parcel next to Mother Waldron Park as a way to produce more affordable housing close to a future city rail station.

HCDA also envisioned the 650-foot limit applying to land around two rail station sites in Kakaako and possibly a third station site near Aloha Tower. The agency reasoned that the cost per residential unit would be lower in extra-tall buildings and therefore make it easier for developers to provide more affordable housing. The agency also said that taller buildings would be thinner and thus preserve more view planes.

Despite backlash from some residents and environmental groups, HCDA pressed ahead with amending its rules. In 2013 the agency published a draft plan for transit-oriented development that sought to allow three 700-foot towers near Kakaako rail station sites along with towers up to 550 feet in other parts of Kakaako.

HCDA intended to hold public hearings and have its board vote on the plan, but in 2014 the Legislature passed a bill that prohibited the agency from increasing the 418-foot limit.

Now HB 1559 would lift that prohibition.

Rep. Ryan Yamane (D, Mi­lilani-Waipio-Waikele) introduced the bill. As chairman of the House Water, Land and Hawaiian Affairs Committee, he voted with four other committee members — Reps. Chris Todd, Nicole Lowen, David Tarnas and Tina Wildberger — to pass the bill 5-0.

A companion bill, SB 1496, introduced by Sen. Stanley Chang, has been scheduled for a hearing Tuesday. The House bill is slated to be considered next by the Judiciary Committee and then the Finance Committee.