Electronic filings of building permits to be required

Beginning July 1, the city’s Department of Planning and Permitting will require all building permits needing plans and all building permit applications for commercial projects to be submitted only through its electronic plan review system.

The move, DPP says, will allow the department to better track submitted plans and permits for both residential and commercial projects via its ePlans system.

However, traditional paper plans submitted prior to July 1 will still be processed. DPP will continue to accept paper plans for civil drawings associated with commercial building permit applications until a phasing process is eventually established, the city says.

“The switch to ePlans for all commercial submissions is another piece to the major overhaul of the permitting process to streamline and improve permitting, and also to reach the department’s goal of going paperless,” DPP Director Dawn Takeuchi Apuna said in a written statement. “We urge design professionals to visit our website to familiarize themselves with the ePlans process. The applicants will save time by avoiding travel to our permit counter and between agencies, and ePlans will also provide better tracking of permit processing.”

According to DPP’s website, those plans that are “100% ready for construction paper plans” and that have been submitted no later than 4:30 p.m. June 30 may remain as submitted via paper. Any paper plans currently in queue will expire 365 days following the date of application for a permit.

Applications for permits will require the same information entered through DPP’s website.

“After the Internet Building Permit Application has been submitted, you will receive a link to submit remaining plans/documents via ePlans. All communications will be processed through ePlans,” DPP’s website states. “All plans must comply with the Building Permit Plan Format Checklist or will be rejected.”

DPP’s artificial-intelligence bot — meant to pre-screen for four of the 10 most common errors that add delays to gaining a permit — reviews the checklist.

“The only changes from paper plans to ePlans will be the Bot ensuring that for each sheet there is the required approval stamp space at the top right corner and the appropriate file name format,” the website states.

DPP’s latest move to update the speed at which plans are reviewed and reduce permit backlog follows earlier public meetings over DPP’s challenges to fill personnel vacancies and to deal with flawed plan reviews signed off on by third-party reviewers working for the city.

In April, Takeuchi Apuna told the City Council’s Committee on Zoning that roughly 60% of DPP’s plan checks are being done by third-party reviewers.

An audit of third-party reviews was conducted in 2022, showing some of the reviewers “were not living up to what was required of them,” she said. The department’s rules allow third-party reviewers to be removed or penalized for any ongoing problems, she added.

That same month, on April 11, DPP faulted a third-party reviewer for granting an unwarranted building permit.

DPP asserted that local architect Jimmy Wu — working on behalf of the city —reviewed and certified plans for what was later deemed a “monster home” in the Kalihi area. DPP issued a building permit on March 28, 2022, for the project at 1532 Hanai Loop.

But based on an inquiry from City Council member Tyler Dos Santos-Tam and state Rep. John Mizuno, DPP “re-reviewed” the plans and determined incorrect information was provided to DPP by the project applicants and that the planned two-story, single-family home with nine bathrooms, no side yards and insufficient parking was a gross violation of the city’s “monster homes” ordinance, the city said.

DPP revoked the project’s building permit and issued a notice of violation and a stop-work order to the owners, Junqin Chen and Maonan Wang.

Meanwhile, with an ongoing wait time of nearly a year, DPP seeks other ways to reduce its backlog of building permit applications.

In February, City Council Chair Tommy Waters introduced Bill 6, which would give the DPP director authority to continue the use of third-party reviewers who are overseen by DPP staff but will also add to the mix self-certifying licensed architects and engineers, who will have to attest that any plans, specifications, computations and other data they submit to the department are true and correct.

The self-certification provision under Bill 6 would be repealed — or sunset — seven years after it takes effect.

“The department supports this bill, which will allow us — as we fix our processes (and) bring our backlog down and function more efficiently — temporarily to get outside help in our permit review,” Takeuchi Apuna told the Zoning Committee on April 5.

In addition, Takeuchi Apuna requested the draft measure impose penalties on outside contractors who issue “false statements” to the city, “to ensure that we don’t have rubber-stampers and there are consequences for people who aren’t 100% very careful about the work they do without having to go through our permitting process.”

Takeuchi Apuna said her department had looked to other places around the country — Chicago, New York and a jurisdiction in Arizona — where “they have a whole program for training and rules and regulations for these professionals who want to self-certify” as options to follow.

Audits also could be conducted, she added.

Bill 6, last reviewed in April, awaits further consideration at the Council’s Committee on Zoning. Chaired by Council member Calvin Say, that committee is scheduled to hold its next meeting at 9 a.m. June 21.

For more information on ePlans, visit honolulu.gov/dpp. For further information, call 808-768-8000 or email dpp@honolulu.gov.