HONOLULU One of Hawaiis biggest housing developers supplied extra units on single-family lots in Ewa, Oahu, to help alleviate a shortage of living space.
HONOLULU — One of Hawaii’s biggest housing developers supplied extra units on single-family lots in Ewa, Oahu, to help alleviate a shortage of living space.
D.R. Horton supplied the units constructed under a Honolulu program that was established in 2015.
The Texas-based company has built and sold 35 of the units attached to new homes at its master-planned community in Ewa, which is 13% of the 262 of the units built on Oahu.
The program allows a second dwelling on lots between 3,500 square feet and 20,000 square feet zoned for single-family use, provided that adequate sewer capacity exists.
The units are allowed to be between 400 and 800 square feet (37 and 74 square meters) depending on the size of the lot. They must have their own kitchen and bathroom and one parking stall is required unless a city rail station is planned within a half-mile.
The units, which are either attached or detached, must also must have a separate entrance from the main home and cannot be used for short-term transient accommodations.
Horton’s participation in the program has been welcome, in part because production has not been as high as the city envisioned, said Kathy Sokugawa, acting director of the Honolulu Department of Planning and Permitting.
“He would like to see a lot more done,” Sokugawa said of Mayor Kirk Caldwell, who endorsed accessory dwelling units as a tool to help produce more affordable housing.
