New law allows small commercial, residential projects to move forward without special permits
WAILUKU, Maui—A bill allowing smaller commercial and residential projects to go forward without having to go through a major permit process takes effect Friday, July 1.
House Bill 117 raises the threshold of projects required to have special management area major permits from $125,000 to $500,000.
Maui Mayor Alan Arakawa said the change alleviates constraints previously held on smaller projects.
“I proposed and supported this change because State law needed to be updated for the sake of free enterprise,” Arakawa said in a statement. “For years, the cost of materials and labor has risen but this SMA permit threshold has remained the same. Now homeowners can remodel their kitchens and store owners can redesign their shops without going through an unnecessary and cumbersome SMA major process.”
The $125,000 value had not been modified since 1991.
City and County of Honolulu Department of Planning and Permitting Director David Tanoue also agreed, and stated in his written testimony that the current threshold was “woefully outdated, unnecessarily burdensome and fundamentally meaningless.”
The Legislature incorporated other provisions into the bill. While House Bill 117 increases the valuation for SMA major permits to $500,000, it also puts a limit on the size of single-family residences that fall within the exemption range. Homes of less than 7,500 square feet, with a valuation of less than $500,000, will be exempt from SMA permitting requirements altogether. Larger homes, depending on their valuation, will still be required to obtain either SMA minor or major permits.
Those in opposition to the bill, who wanted to keep the $125,000 threshold, were concerned about residents’ fight to protect coastal areas from development.
The Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Hawaii’s Thousand Friends, Sierra Club-Hawaii Chapter, the Coastal Resources, and Shoreline Planner for Maui County testified in opposition of House Bill 117.
Sally Kaye, former chair of the Lanai Planning Commission, said in opposing testimony: “To rely on an unidentified and non-quantified assertion that ‘costs of purchasing and importing construction materials’ have ‘increased’ to support the reduction in local control over review of development of local lands is contrary to principles of good government in the State of Hawaii.”