A task force recently created by Hawaii’s Legislature has begun to work on “simplifying ” the building permit process statewide in an effort to unleash more construction and economic development.
The 34-member panel held its first meeting Thursday at the state Capitol, with most of the five-hour effort devoted to understanding the work of county and state agencies involved in processing building permits.
One big and perhaps not-too-surprising takeaway from presentations and discussions at the meeting was that the involved agencies have significant staff vacancies that reduce permit processing capacity.
At the Honolulu Department of Planning and Permitting, 14 of 33 positions handling commercial property permits are vacant, and on the residential side there are six vacancies among 32 positions.
“The pay is probably the biggest challenge, ” Dawn Apuna, DPP director and task force member, said during the meeting. “Private pays more, and then you have the feds … they pay even higher.”
Apuna said pay levels for DPP positions are 30 % or more below comparable federal employees, and that filling vacancies has been very difficult.
“People won’t even come for an interview just knowing what the salary range is, ” she said.
Jordan Molina, director of Maui County’s Department of Public Works, said he has five vacancies among 14 position for processing building permits, excluding engineering specialists.
“Finding people with appropriate experience is a struggle, ” he said. “We struggle to stay fully staffed.”
Vacancies at building permit agencies on Hawaii island and Kauai were smaller but also a challenge, according to representatives who made presentations along with Apuna and Molina, followed by questions from other members.
The task force has a challenging goal to simplify the building permit process in Hawaii, which presenters described as complex and to a large degree bogged down by poor work submitted by applicants.
State lawmakers established the Simplifying Permitting for Enhanced Economic Development (SPEED ) Task Force by passing House Bill 1406 earlier this year. The bill was signed into law by Gov. Josh Green on May 29.
The new law, which formed the SPEED Task Force within the House of Representatives, appropriated $200, 000 for staff and administrative costs over two years before the panel disbands on June 30, 2027.
Members serve without compensation, and include officials from nine state agencies, four county planning or public works agencies, one member from each county council, several representatives of the construction and real estate development industries, members of business organizations and public interest groups, and an adviser to Green.
Rep. Greggor Ilagan, chair of the House Committee on Economic Development and Technology, is chair of the task force and said he led seven presentations largely to chamber of commerce organizations around the state over the past several weeks describing the panel’s effort.
Ilagan (D, Hawaiian Paradise Park-Hawaiian Beaches-Leilani Estates ) was the lead introducer of HB 1406, which received supportive testimony from state agencies, home production advocates and business organizations.
James Tokioka, director of the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism, said in written testimony that the task force initiative would be a significant step toward streamlining the permitting process across various government agencies in Hawaii.
“This will not only enhance governmental efficiency but also foster a more business-friendly environment, encouraging economic growth and development within our state, ” he said.
Ted Kefalas, director of strategic campaigns for the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii, advocated for regulatory reform.
“It might be possible to reduce permitting delays with more staff or better software, but ultimately, only reform of the permitting regulations themselves will make lasting inroads into resolving our housing crisis, ” he said in written testimony.
Some county officials overseeing building permits said during Thursday’s meeting that new regulations imposed by the Legislature and county councils have increased permit processing workloads.
Apuna suggested that regular updates to Hawaii building codes be done every six years instead of every three, because updates require staff to interpret changes that also can trip up applicants.
Apuna also said that permit applications cycle through the review process between two and five times on average because applicants don’t adequately address problems indicated by staff.
“That’s a lot, ” she said.
Aaron Spielman, deputy building chief at Hawaii County’s Department of Public Works, said it has been recently taking a remarkably quick 45 days on average to issue permits on applications that need no corrections. The agency tries to reduce poor-quality submissions by charging additional review fees if more than two reviews are required.
Spielman said his office is assessing several software systems that could be implemented to automate more of the permitting process, including one system using AI that DPP is testing with some frequent customers before an anticipated broad roll out.
The software, CivCheck, provides guidance to applicants on code compliance that can help them submit applications that don’t require corrections.
Apuna said the software is expected to reduce the number of review cycles needed for many applications. The CivCheck software is in addition to a new online permitting system that DPP launched Aug. 4 and expects to have fully implemented in three weeks.
Such upgrades should make DPP’s building permit process more efficient, according to Apuna, who said the agency has been troubled in the past but does not deserve a lot of the more frequent criticism by applicants who complain that DPP is to blame for long-delayed permits.
Nine times out of 10, Apuna said, such delays are due to deficiencies or inaction by applicants.
Molina added that in some cases other county or state agencies may be holding up permits due to issues with their review. Such agencies include the state Department of Health, which regulates wastewater systems, water utilities, fire departments and the state Historic Preservation Division.
“One of the things I’ve encountered is people just saying, ‘Make it easier, fix it, make it go faster, ’ ” Molina said. “It’s not that simple because we don’t have oversight over all these items. These are all independent provisions of law. These are all independent enforcement agencies that have their oversight and responsibilities, and so it’s not as simple as telling them all, ‘Get out of the way.’ ”
SHPD has been cited as a contributor to delays due in part to insufficient staffing. Jessica Puff, the agency’s administrator and a task force member, told the panel that 18 of 52 positions are vacant, and that most of the vacant positions were new positions authorized by the Legislature in 2022.
Filling the additional positions has been slow because of bureaucracy that has resulted in no recruitment yet for some of the jobs.
Another focus of the panel is how the Health Department works to permit individual wastewater systems.
To understand more detail of building permits, SHPD review and wastewater system approvals, the task force formed three permitted interaction groups among members to delve deeper into those areas and make recommendations at the panel’s next meeting in January.
“We only scratched the surface here, ” Ilagan said toward the end of Thursday’s meeting. “The PIGs is going to be where we really take a shovel and start digging into these challenges.”