Editorial: Approve Kaneohe elder care facility

A proposed care facility on a residential lot in the Mahinui community at Kaneohe Bay Drive has been granted a conditional use permit from Honolulu’s Department of Planning and Permitting (DPP), provoking heated opposition from neighbors. The aging residence would be replaced by a 24-unit senior care home with a footprint of 11,432 square feet — more than four times larger than the current structure.

Opponents of the facility, dubbed Hale Mahinui, compare the care home to “monster houses” — giant residences that have been increasingly encroaching on residential neighborhoods throughout Oahu, often as illegal rentals for dozens of unrelated tenants, built to skirt zoning rules by mischaracterizing separate units as bedrooms and taking up every inch of space on a lot.

There is a clear difference, however, between a senior care home that is transparently permitted and approved for use by the DPP, following Honolulu zoning regulations, and an apartment building built under false pretenses. “Monster homes” burden a community and are erected without the possibility of public input over their character, because they are falsely represented as housing just one family during the permitting process. This care facility, in contrast, correctly submitted plans to the DPP, notified the Kaneohe Neighborhood Board of its efforts and participated in a public process of permitting.

Honolulu’s permitting rules properly allow care homes to build larger and create more activity in a residential neighborhood than a single-family home would, because of the essential services provided. As a condition of their permit, these homes are permanently restricted to care facility operations. Further, this Kaneohe care facility won its conditional use permit by submitting a plan that the DPP determined will not destroy the residential character of the neighborhood or damage the environment.

Care and safe housing for the elderly in a community benefits the community. It is needed by aging residents of Kaneohe, as well as all of Honolulu, and the city rightly granted this care facility a “major” conditional use permit (CUP-Major in DPP lingo) after all requirements were fulfilled.

While the neighbors object that siting a care home at this location is “inappropriate” because of its size and projected use, this property is directly across Kaneohe Bay Drive from the Nichiren Shoshu Honseiji Temple, which attracts occasional visitor traffic and has added parking, and is only blocks away from an apartment complex. It’s also located conveniently near an H-3 freeway on-ramp leading to central Kaneohe and Honolulu. A shuttle service would provide transportation for residents.

The would-be operator, Jacob Chan, is a former health-care professional — an emergency medical technician — and told Hawaii News Now that there is a long wait for senior care options on Oahu. Demographics bear that out.

In 2021, the state’s Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism (DBEDT) reported on Hawaii’s aging population, noting that nearly 1 in 5 Oahu residents were age 65 or older, and projecting that as Hawaii’s baby boomers age, those 65 and over will make up nearly a quarter of the total population by 2030.

By 2040, 1 in 4 of Hawaii’s seniors will be over 85, an age when senior care is more likely needed, and the need will continue to increase for care homes, such as that proposed for Kaneohe.

Three separate groups of residents have appealed this facility’s CUP-Major, and contested case hearings have been scheduled with the city’s Zoning Board of Appeals in July and August. On these appeals, the Zoning Board should maintain its approval for the care facility, one of many needed to keep Oahu’s seniors secure.