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Three House-led committees comprising state and county governments, private developers and environmental interests, among others, face tight December deadlines to make recommendations before the start of the legislative session in January on complex issues to spur economic development across the state regarding permitting, cesspool conversions and historic preservation regulations. The issues have challenged county and state governments sometimes for decades, but a new law signed in May by Gov. Josh Green allows for the committees to meet in private and bring together sometimes competing groups such as private companies, environmentalists and historic preservationists to come up with short-, medium- and long-term solutions. The permitted, interactive groups — known as PIGs — allow for private, hours-long discussions that have given different sides the time to hear various perspectives that have so far been productive, said state Rep. Susan Keohokapu-Lee Loy (D, Hilo), who chairs the 17-member, Building Permit Permitted Interaction Group. “We’re probably about 65 hours in and have had deep and thoughtful conversations and have heard from all sides,” said Keohokapu--Lee Loy. “Everybody has homework. So they come to these discussions ready. We’re really hopeful that some good, thoughtful solutions will emerge.” Rep. Greggor Ilagan (D, Hawaiian Paradise Park--Hawaiian Beaches-Leilani -Estates) chairs the House Economic Development and Technology Committee and now chairs the new Simplifying Permitting for Enhanced Economic Development (SPEED) Task Force that oversees all three committees. Each of the committees’ recommendations will be made public in December and people will be able to weigh in before the task force makes its final recommendations before the upcoming legislative session begins in January, Ilagan said. In the public hearings, Ilagan said, “we’re going to discuss, debate and vote on the recommendations toward the overall goal to simplify the permitting process to make it easier for the community. “We want to make it easier to do business in Hawaii and change that climate for residential permitting and commercial permitting,” Ilagan said. He and the three committee chairs separately told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that the private discussions are helping each committee find consensus by their December deadline. “Having a permitted interactive group — a PIG — allows subject matter experts to have a dialogue over small recommendations to big ones,” said Rep. Mike Lee (D, Kailua-Kaneohe Bay). Lee chairs the 14-member, Individual Wastewater Systems Permit PIG that’s looking at potential administrative rule changes and possible new laws to help the state reach its goal of eliminating cesspools by Jan. 1 2050. Committee members include state and county officials, developers, environmental groups, the state Historic Preservation Division and others, Lee said. “It’s a good collection of different people with different perspectives that runs the gamut,” he said. “Having a PIG allows robust conversations and all parties are learning, sharing and collaborating as a result.” No consensus on final recommendations has been reached yet, but Lee anticipates as many as 20 potential proposed changes to administrative rules or even state laws. The issues over eliminating cesspools — which can leech into soil, water tables, streams and the ocean — remain complex, especially in rural communities that don’t have ready access to county wastewater systems, he said. For instance, an idea to create uniform, preapproved designs to replace aging cesspools seems to make sense but gets complicated by each properties’ unique topography, Lee said. “Every house is different,” he said. “There are different factors like space and the existence of lava rock that complicates everything and makes the process much, much longer. Different rural neighbors can use the same engineer, but there may be differences on how to do it correctly for the environment and for public safety. It really is site specific but (the Department of Health) is willing to look into that. The benefit of the PIGs is it allows a small group to do a deep dive on complex issues to present recommendations in public meetings that are well thought out.” Before she served in the House, Keohokapu-Lee Loy was a member of the Hawaii County Council that “went through a complete overhaul of our construction codes, along with the online building permit process from paper plans to online. We learned a lot of lessons.” Now, her House committee includes the head of Honolulu’s Department of Planning and Permitting, Dawn Takeuchi Apuna, developers and a member of the Maui County Council that’s trying to rebuild Lahaina following the Aug. 8, 2023, wildfires, among others. All of the groups held their first public meeting in September at the state Capitol, when county planning officials identified perennial unfilled positions as one of the critical bottle necks to getting building permits approved quicker — along with poor work submitted by permit applicants. The committees were told by Apuna and other county planning officials that county pay pales compared to higher salaries offered by federal and private employees looking to fill similar positions. Rep. Tyson Miyake (D, Wailuku-Waikapu) chairs the Historic Preservation Permitted Interaction Group that includes Jessica Puff, administrator of the state Historic Preservation Division, and development interests. The committee continues to look at SHPD, Miyake said, because “many building projects, in order to get building permits, have to go through SHPD review, where there are long delays. We want to see where the bottleneck is.” Four of Miyake’s neighbors complained of delays in getting SHPD to sign off on their projects, including one on his street who had waited four years without an explanation. Miyake eventually found out that even before the Aug. 8, 2023, Maui wildfires, two archaeologists had left “so there were no archaeologists to do reviews.” During the last legislative session, Miyake authored House Bill 830 that authorizes the State Historic Preservation Division to hire third-party contractors to conduct reviews of state projects and other projects affecting historic properties, beginning in July 2026. Green signed it into law this year as Act 306. When he was selected to lead the special committee looking into SHPD, Miyake said “Developers reached out to me.” Now, Puff can “hear firsthand the challenges that they’re faced with and she can help address any questions right there and then,” Miyake said. “Overall, we’re having great discussions. That’s why the discussions and feedback are so great and so long. Everyone is open and willing to share. No one’s attacking anybody or having conflict, because the overall goal is to better enhance permitting.”
