WAILUKU - Maui County Council members took a step Wednesday toward altering the county's residential work force housing policy in an effort to coax more development of affordable housing - and any housing - in these troubled economic times.
And Public Services Committee Chairman Wayne Nishiki reiterated an earlier pledge that members will continue to rework the policy, which was authored in 2006 to ensure that when developers build luxury homes in Maui County, they will also provide homes affordable to residents with limited incomes.
In a life span marred by the deepest recession in memory, the ordinance has been applied to only three housing developments. Critics say that's proof the ordinance doesn't work, while supporters say practically no one is building or buying in this poor economy.
Either way, a change is needed on the government level to boost the floundering construction industry and provide home-buying opportunities for residents, council members said.
"We want to let the community know that this is just one small step of many steps needed to revise this ordinance," said Council Member Mike Victorino.
The measure, which advances to the full council for first reading, reduces to at least 25 percent the number of affordable homes a developer would be required to build in a new subdivision (any with five or more homes).
That's down from the 40 percent requirement in the current ordinance. If and when the new amendment passes the County Council in the coming weeks, it will only apply to projects in which the planned market-rate homes are estimated to fetch $600,000 or less on the open market.
The average single-family home on Maui sold for $719,993 last year. And, according to the existing law, when a developer builds a subdivision with market-rate homes starting at more than $600,000, half of the new properties must be affordable.
Developer and Maui Contractors Association President David Goode lobbied council members on Wednesday to lower the affordable housing threshold to 15 percent, saying the county needs to be doing whatever it can these days to get people back to work.
By contrast, Stan Franco of the nonprofit organization, Faith Action for Community Equity Maui, said members of his group would be more comfortable with lowering the rate to 30 percent.
Council Member and Public Services Committee Vice Chairman Joe Pontanilla called 25 percent a good compromise.
Franco also asked council members to take a stronger stand to ensure that developers don't take advantage of legal language that allows them to create neighborhoods that do not have mixed-income levels of residents living within them.
Deputy Corporation Counsel Kimberly Sloper also clarified some of the work force housing ordinance's previously fuzzy language when it comes to the percentages. She said, for instance under the new amendment, that when 100 homes are built "on site," 75 homes would be sold at market rate and 25 as affordable homes.
Under the Maui County ordinance, a development company has the option to go the "off-site" route, where, for instance, 100 market-rate homes are built in one area, and 40 affordable homes are built somewhere in the same planning district. To help soothe some of the classism concerns by affordable housing advocates such as Franco and others, committee members on Wednesday increased the off-site affordable housing rate to 50 percent in an amendment.
"Today, in my heart, I look at affordable housing in a different light," Pontanilla said. "If at all possible, we must not segregate by classes."
He said he does not like the idea of "homogenous neighborhoods."
All nine County Council members are part of the committee, although two are nonvoting members. The vote was 5-0 Wednesday, with voting members Jo Anne Johnson and Danny Mateo absent and excused.
In a letter to the committee, Mayor Charmaine Tavares expressed support for the proposed ordinance change.
Developers, real estate and construction representatives over the past year have provided committee members numerous proposed amendments to the county's work force housing policy, such as lifting deed restrictions and eliminating a companion law that requires developers to provide their own water sources.
About 3,100 dwellings have been proposed since the ordinance went into effect, according to the county Department of Housing and Human Concerns. Some of those projects are still in the planning phase, while developers of other projects have either lost financing or are waiting for the housing market to improve.
In a sign of what other changes might be coming to the housing ordinance, Victorino suggested the county get back into the business of building affordable homes itself, but with conditions to prevent owners of affordable homes from reselling them at market rates.
Without affordable housing options available, "the American dream has become a nightmare," Victorino said.
* Chris Hamilton can be reached at chamilton@mauinews.com.
