The city Department of Planning and Permitting says in order to make way for the new, it must first get rid of the old.
To that end, DPP announced that effective immediately, it will purge building permit applications that have been in its review system for more than 365 days, with no activity from the applicant. This includes permits that have been approved to be issued but have not been picked up.
In removing what it deems to be “old and idle” applications, DPP said it hopes to reduce the permit backlog as the department transitions from its old software system, POSSE, to its new Clariti system, which is expected to come online later this year.
“We have begun our review of old, idle permit applications and will begin expiring them soon,” DPP Director Dawn Takeuchi Apuna told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. “There is no set time and will depend on staff time to expire the permits in addition to their regular work duties.”
DPP says idle permit applications are shown as “in progress” in the agency’s POSSE system but are actually with the applicant or its agent, with no sign that they intend to proceed with the project.
The department suggests applicant-related inactivity — not the city’s actual review process — contributes to the backlog of permits under DPP review. And the backlog, they add, takes physical space in DPP’s offices in the form of paper plans as well.
Additionally, the department said those permit applications that have been approved, but not picked up for more than 365 days, might no longer meet codes that have since been updated, and therefore could require reapplication, redesign and re-review.
Currently, there are 3,663 residential permit applications “in progress” in the POSSE system, with 1,900 that have been in the system for more than 365 days without any activity by the applicant, according to DPP.
Some of these applications may be waiting for a discretionary permit to be approved, and these will not be expired, DPP said.
On the commercial side, there are 3,267 commercial permit applications “in progress,” with 1,890 that have remained idle for more than 365 days, the department said.
Some of these applications — 1,023 — have been reviewed and approved to be issued, but the applicants have not paid for them or picked them up, DPP said. Those that are idle for more than 365 also are subject to expiring.
Still, the department claims its actions target only inactive applications.
DPP says applications that have been in process for more than 365 days that applicants are actively reviewing, addressing agency comments, and providing feedback to the department, will not expire. Only the applications that have remained entirely idle for at least 365 days will be expired.
Applicants will have the opportunity to contact DPP and ask that their applications not expire. But they will need to show that they will provide the updated information needed for the permit review to proceed.
Those with approved plans may pick them up and pay any outstanding fees. Once an application expires, new plans must be submitted and plan review fees paid if the applicant wishes to continue the project.
According to DPP, anyone interested in requesting that their idle permit not be expired should send an email to dppcancelpermits@ honolulu.gov and provide the following:
>> Applicant’s name.
>> Contact phone number.
>> Tax map key, or TMK, of the project.
>> Permit application number.
>> The reason why the application should not be expired.
During his March 18 State of the City address, Mayor Rick Blangiardi touted the progress made at DPP to reduce the historically months-long wait times to obtain a building permit, which he’d considered one of the “wicked problems” within city and county government.
“Twelve months ago we promised our residents that within a year the average amount of time it took DPP to conduct code reviews on residential permits would be less than one month. We have it down to two weeks,” he claimed. “We promised that code review on commercial projects would be done in six months or less by the end of 2025, and it is already down to 60 days — and DPP is far from done.”
But the mayor admitted other parts of the permitting process still needed work.
“We’re not saying that applications are being approved in 60 days. But fixing the code review process was something that people told us could never be done, and the data shows that the staff at DPP have already made more progress than has been done in the last 25 years,” he said.
Blangiardi added, “The seeds of improvement that we planted over the past four years are finally beginning to bear fruit.”
“After more than a year of system upgrades, Clariti — our new permitting software — will be fully operational by Sept. 1,” the mayor said. “CivCheck, our cutting-edge, AI-driven plan review assistant, will go live this fall, helping applicants submit complete and compliant permits in their first review cycle — cutting down review times even further.”
DPP is implementing and testing the Clariti program, which is expected to be fully operational this summer.
“We are currently in our testing phase of the project to validate the functionality meets our design requirements,” Takeuchi Apuna told the Star-Advertiser. “We will be starting training for staff and developing user guides for the public once the functionality is finalized. Final data migration from POSSE will occur prior to the system cutover.”
In March 2024, DPP formally unveiled plans to use automation to speed the building permit process.
At the time, Takeuchi Apuna noted the new system was part of a $5.6 million project that was expected to be fully completed in 18 months, or by fall 2025.
Money for that system originated with Honolulu’s receipt of $386 million in 2021 from the Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Fund, or FRF, as part of the federal government’s $1.3 trillion American Rescue Plan Act package.
ProjectDox from Avolve Software, which launched in July 2023, also allows users to view, zoom, pan, rotate, measure, annotate and redact building plan documents and images, the city said.
That system upgrade, also paid for with FRF money, cost $206,000, she said.
