A new state emergency housing development approval panel didn’t have anything to consider for approval at its first working meeting Tuesday, but got an earful from community members opposed to the panel’s existence, power or process.
Although one of the six project applications on the Build Beyond Barriers Working Group meeting agenda has been long planned for vacant land above Lahaina, some critics scolded the panel for not consulting Lahaina community members on proposed projects that could benefit people displaced by the Aug. 8 wildfire that burned down the homes of thousands of residents.
A few other testifiers at the meeting suggested that the 36-member panel, created July 17 via an emergency proclamation from Gov. Josh Green and represented largely by state and county officials, is part of a scheme to redevelop the historic waterfront town on Maui that was almost completely destroyed by the fire, which killed at least 115 people.
There also were a few people who questioned or challenged the working group’s authority based on a legal complaint filed Monday in state court. And B.J. Penn, an unsuccessful candidate for the 2022 Republican gubernatorial nomination, accused panel members of ignoring public concerns and wanting to take the family fortunes of Lahaina evacuees and put them in Puna on Hawaii island where one of the projects on the panel’s Tuesday agenda is located.
“You guys gonna take the people in Lahaina and put them in Puna,” said Penn. “That’s crazy.”
Green led off the meeting by saying that increasing Hawaii’s housing supply is one of the state’s great challenges and that he does not want anyone to feel that anything is being rammed down their throat.
“I know that there have been concerns about the process, and that’s why we’re all here,” he said. “That’s why we’re opening it up. That’s why we can all see what’s going on.”
In a departure from an Aug. 11 orientation meeting of the panel that was broadcast live but barred members of the public from attending in person, Tuesday’s meeting in a legislative conference room at the state Capitol was open to the public and broadcast.
Written public testimony was accepted, but the agenda said oral public testimony would not be allowed. However, Green’s chief housing officer, Nani Medeiros, decided after the meeting began to allow people in the conference room to testify.
Green and Medeiros emphasized that rebuilding homes for Lahaina evacuees was not the subject or focus of Tuesday’s meeting.
“First and foremost, let me say with absolute clarity: Lahaina will be rebuilt how the people of Lahaina and Maui want,” Green said. “I want that to be explicit and clear.”
Medeiros restated why the working group was established, which is to get around normal regulatory hurdles to housing production in an effort to build more homes faster, increase supply and reduce prices especially for affordable housing without significant negative impacts on the environment and cultural resources.
“Lahaina is not on the table — not until the community is ready,” she said. “If and when they are ready, if this working group can assist in any way and support them, we will.”
Of the six project applications, four were submitted Aug. 22 by the state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands.
The agency sought approval to move ahead with 250 house lots for Native Hawaiian beneficiaries on 51 acres above the Lahaina Civic Center on vacant DHHL land in a project known as Village 1B in the Villages of Leiali’i. DHHL’s Village 1B project has been long planned and once was estimated to begin construction in 2015.
The other three DHHL projects, also on Maui, are a water system in Honokowai to support homestead development, 328 home lots in Wailuku and 398 home lots in Waiehu.
Medeiros announced that the four applications were removed from the agenda after more than 400 pieces of written testimony were submitted mainly on these projects.
“We heard you,” she said. “We’re listening to you.”
Several people who submitted written testimony said preference for DHHL land should go to Lahaina residents first, then others on Maui.
Much testimony also urged the panel to adhere to the state’s sunshine law, which requires at least six days’ notice be given for public meetings, among other things.
The agenda for the working group’s meeting was posted Friday, short of the requirement but allowed under the emergency proclamation, which led to complaints that the public gets inadequate time to know about and comment on meeting items.
Daylin-Rose Heather, a staff attorney with the Native Hawaiian Legal Corp., noted that panel members did not receive her testimony in advance of the meeting, given that it was submitted close to 24 hours in advance.
A few testifiers informed the panel that a legal challenge to the panel’s authority has been filed in state court.
The “Quo Warranto” lawsuit, filed Monday in state Circuit Court on Maui, challenges the lawfulness of establishing the working group and the authority of Medeiros as “lead housing officer.” A judge has called for Medeiros and the working group to answer the complaint at a scheduled appearance in court Jan. 19.
The Hawaii Public Housing Authority submitted the two other applications to the panel.
One of these was submitted July 28 asking for exemptions to state personnel hiring and procurement rules so that the agency can accelerate repairs for many of its more than 300 vacant units as well as process housing applications and assistance payments.
Hakim Ouansafi, HPHA executive director, said the agency has over 80 vacant positions.
Approval of this application is to be made by Medeiros, who has the power to make certain approvals or to allow for alternate approval processes with other requested exemptions for state or county projects.
The other HPHA application was submitted Aug. 16 and sought an exemption to county administrative rules so that HPHA can renovate many vacant public housing units at its 50-unit Hale Aloha o Puna project in Keaau on Hawaii island at a cost of $10 million.
According to the application, the Hawaii County Department of Public Works rescinded a building permit because HPHA is using a licensed architect to manage the project after a different licensed architect produced the drawings for the work.
Ouansafi noted that the Lahaina fire destroyed two agency public housing projects and killed one tenant, while another remains missing.
The panel, however, was not asked to act on this application because county officials, Ouansafi said, have agreed to reissue the building permit.
Even though there was no decision-making at the meeting, there was plenty of contentious testimony.
Gary Cordery, another unsuccessful Republican candidate for governor in 2022, accused panel members or the agencies they represent of supporting redevelopment plans for a “smart city” on Maui. After some members challenged Cordery’s assertions, Medeiros paused the meeting briefly to allow for a calming of temperatures.
Penn, who like Cordery lost the Republican nomination to James “Duke” Aiona in the election won by Green, a Democrat, was the first to speak after the break, and he chastised panel members for some responses.
“We come here to talk about something, and then you guys start fighting with us,” Penn said.
Penn also called Green weak and suggested that the governor ducked out of the meeting when Penn arrived.
“I came inside. What? He gotta go check his bibbidees? What’s going on?” the retired mixed martial arts fighter said.
A representative of the governor said Green, who is not a panel member, left during the meeting because he had a previously scheduled meeting with U.S. Rep. Ed Case.
Trisha Kehaulani Watson, a panel member who runs the local environmental consulting firm Honua Consulting LLC, said nobody proposes to force anyone from Lahaina to move to Puna.
Maui resident Sterling Higa, a panel member and executive director of Housing Hawai’i’s Future, asked for people to stop yelling at Medeiros and instead to support all the group’s members, who he said care about producing more affordable housing so that residents aren’t forced to leave Hawaii.
“They want to see this better,” said Higa, who choked up while speaking and noted that his wife is a graduate of Lahainaluna High School. “I’m angry, too. I don’t want to be here. Let’s do it together.”