Developer withdraws Kailua affordable-housing plan

The developer of a planned four-story low-income apartment building on the edge of a single-family Kailua neighborhood withdrew its application for the controversial project Tuesday.

The move by Ahe Group, however, won’t avert what appeared to be a certain majority Honolulu City Council final decision rejecting the plan at a special meeting scheduled for today.

Five of the Council’s nine members said Friday during or after a committee meeting that they opposed the project.

City Council Chairman Ikaika Anderson said Tuesday that today’s hearing will be held because the city Office of Council Services advised that a state statute governing the approval process doesn’t address application withdrawals.

Makani Maeva, principal of Kailua-based Ahe Group, informed the Council in a letter Tuesday that she has withdrawn her application to permit the proposed 73-unit project under a state law that allows zoning exemptions for predominantly affordable housing projects subject to Council approval.

The project, Kawainui Street Apartments, would have reserved 68 one- and two-bedroom units for Hawaii households earning no more than 60% of Honolulu’s median income, with rents locked in for 61 years and estimated to start as low as $521 a month.

Though the project had its supporters who included affordable-housing advocates, some Kailua residents and the city Department of Planning and Permitting, overwhelming opposition — mainly from Kailua residents — convinced Council members Anderson, Tommy Waters, Ann Kobayashi, Kymberly Pine and Heidi Tsuneyoshi to side with opponents following two committee meetings that featured roughly eight hours of public testimony earlier this month.

Council members Ron Menor, Joey Manahan and Brandon Elefante backed the project for contributing badly needed affordable housing in a community with little of it.

In her letter, Maeva expressed thanks to Menor, Manahan and Elefante for their commitment to solving Honolulu’s affordable- housing crisis.

She also suggested that community leaders who rallied opposition against her project should help be part of a solution to deliver affordable housing in Kailua after several attempts by various developers were shot down in past years.

“My hope is that all of the energy that opposed this project continues and is directed toward a real solution,” she said. “Real solutions require hard conversations, tough decisions, and, ultimately, actions.

“The fact of the matter is that Kailua is a wonderful place for those who can afford it or who are fortunate to live with family who can afford it. People who grew up here have fond memories of what used to make Kailua special to them as children, and they are desperate to hold on to that past. Unfortunately, Kailua has changed and will continue to gentrify without taking bold action to accommodate its workforce and lower income residents.”

Opponents, which included Kailua Neighborhood Board members who voted 17-0 in July recommending against city approval for Kawai­nui Apartments after receiving testimony that was 80% against the developer’s plan, contended that a four-story building with 73 apartments and 53 parking stalls would ruin the character of Kailua and shouldn’t be next to single-family residences on land zoned for single-family homes.

The developer and some supporters argued that the nearly 1-acre site occupied by seven single-family homes at one end of the Coconut Grove neighborhood was appropriate for the project because affordable housing is in critically short supply and the site at Kawai­nui and Oneawa streets is across the street from an auto parts store, a gas station and a 7-Eleven store that are part of Kailua’s commercial core.