A bill that would temporarily suspend the requirement that the Department of Public Works review plans submitted for building permit applications was met with mixed reactions Tuesday.
At a meeting of the County Council’s Committee on Public Works and Mass Transit, Hilo Councilman Aaron Chung presented a bill that would for six months allow any plans and specifications stamped by a licensed architect or professional engineer to be approved without further review by DPW.
The bill, Chung said, is intended to help DPW work through a months-long backlog in building permit applications.
“I just want to see some improvement,” Chung said. “And if the administration can’t do it internally, then it’s going to have to happen legislatively.”
Under the terms of the bill, the architect or engineer putting their stamp on a plan would also certify it conforms with all requirements of the county construction code and all applicable laws. The bill also would allow the county to limit which architects or engineers could bypass the DPW review process in this way.
This period would last for 180 days unless a future bill extends it.
Several residents testified in support of the proposal, with many complaining about the county’s extreme delays in approving residential building permit applications, fueled in part by the adoption of the county’s Electronic Processing and Information Center, or EPIC, which allowed the county to enforce the expiration of permits and therefore required permit holders to reapply for those permits. In May, DPW reported that more than 6,800 permits expired in this way.
“The result of this is a plethora of individuals that will have to disassemble a large share of their house to get the newer energy-efficient codes approved,” wrote Pahoa resident Tony Matulonis. “Overall, us folks need our state/county representatives to obtain an extension, moratorium, or any temporary reprieve from the recent building permit expiration so that we have enough time (at least 180 days) to get our permits completed under the codes for which our original permits were drafted and approved.”
Darryl Oliveira, co-chair of the Hawaii Island Housing Coalition, estimated that at the county’s current rate, it will take about 20 years to develop the 13,000 new housing units that the 2019 Hawaii Housing Planning Study determined are needed for the island. By circumventingthe DPW review requirement, Oliveira said the county is acknowledging the ability of the engineers to maintain the its standards while boosting residential permitting.
Some engineers, however, were displeased with the proposal. Architect Kari Kimura, of Holualoa firm Roth Kimura LLP, said she is unwilling to shoulder the burden of ensuring that a plan adheres to all applicable laws.
“I put my best effort forward as an architect, but I am not so foolish or overconfident to think that I can certify that my work is flawless,” Kimura said. “My firm has carried errors and omissions insurance from our inception in 1999. I think the insurance carriers would be concerned with the insurability of architects that sign the proposed certification.”
Chung suggested the requirement that an architect confirm a plan adheres to the law could be omitted, but Kimura had further concerns. She said there are unscrupulous licensed architects who are willing to put their stamp of approval on a plan they were not involved with, and that under the proposed bill, there would be no qualified reviewer to protect the public from plans approved in this fashion.
Nimr Tamimi, owner of Hilo firm Engineering Partners, said that his firm is contacted several times a year by prospective clients frustrated that their own plans keep getting rejected by the county for not meeting code requirements. Should the bill be passed, those deficient plans could be built, leading to a potentially unsafe building.
Hamakua Councilwoman Heather Kimball also was skeptical of the bill, saying that, among other things, getting rid of the secondary review by DPW only places a greater cost burden onto engineers and architects to review their work.
Although Kimball acknowledged the need to address the DPW permit backlog, and made a commitment to develop measures to help reduce it in the near future, she also said the county has an obligation to ensure that buildings permitted by the county are safe.
“I agree, we need to do something about this, but I don’t want to start on this foundation,” Kimball said. “If the reviewers looked at this foundation, they would not approve it.”
Ultimately, the bill neither passed nor failed, because Chung — who is term-limited and departing the council next month — moved to postpone the legislation until January so that newly elected council members will have an opportunity to discuss it.
Email Michael Brestovansky at mbrestovansky@hawaiitribune-herald.com.