Honolulu City Council Committee on Housing, Homelessness, and Parks Meeting - March 4, 2026
STREAMING COPY IN PREPARATION — RECORDING AVAILABLE FROM THE ORIGINAL SOURCE
Honolulu City Council Committee on Housing, Homelessness, and Parks Meeting - March 4, 2026
The committee convened at 2:30 p.m. to discuss routine gift acceptances, a resolution designating Disability Pride Month, a bill on affordable housing reporting requirements, and a major bill amending the city's affordable rental housing program (Chapter 32). The meeting resulted in several adoptions and a deferral for further study.
Consent Calendar
- Resolution 26-32 (benches and plaques at Kaimuna Beach Park): Amended to CD1 and adopted unanimously.
- Resolution 26-45 (pickleball nets at Kamiloiki Community Park): Adopted unanimously.
- Resolution 26-40 (Disability Pride Month): Adopted unanimously after testimony from the Disability Communication Access Board.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Brian Mick (Disability Communication Access Board): Expressed full support for Bill 18's elevator requirement at 30 feet, citing Fair Housing Act obligations and the need for accessible housing.
- Gina Thielen (Housing advocate, originally opposed): Shifted to comments, urging caution and suggesting a permanent stakeholder group to avoid harming the existing Bill 7 program.
- Martin Wynn (Principal, Center Urban Real Estate): Urged the committee to focus on transit-oriented development and avoid changes that could kill the nascent mid-size developer community.
- Damien Waikoloa (Hawaii YIMBY): Supported intent of Bill 18 but opposed blanket elevator requirement for low-rise buildings and parking minimums, advocating instead for people-first design.
- Tetka Fallis (Grassroot Institute): Supported the bill's direction but opposed the 10 off-street parking stall requirement and elevator mandate for buildings over 30 feet, citing cost increases of $65,000 per parking stall and $50,000–$100,000 per elevator.
- Arjuna Haim (Fly Appleseed): Opposed the parking mandate, noting it adds $68,000 per affordable rental unit and $410/month in extra rent.
- Donald Sakamoto (Blind advocate): Supported elevator requirements for accessibility, stressing the need for housing that allows aging in place.
Discussion Items
- Bill 11 (Affordable housing reporting): Gavin Thornton (Director of Housing Policy) expressed interest in transparency. The bill was reported out for second reading with no opposition.
- Bill 18 (Affordable housing amendments): Extensive discussion centered on Chair's proposed CD1, which set maximum lot size at 40,000 square feet, allowed height of 60 feet or underlying zoning (whichever greater), suggested parking (10 stalls minimum), and elevator requirement for buildings over 30 feet. Councilmembers raised concerns:
- Chair emphasized the need for balanced changes and noted 189 units completed with $1.7 million in incentives.
- Councilmember Kia Aina worried about large projects consuming the budget, special districts, and fire code compliance.
- Councilmember Wire supported flexibility and alignment with other policies (e.g., no parking minimums in urban core).
- Councilmember Del Santos Tam presented data that only about 5 parcels over 20,000 sq ft are developable, suggesting underlying zoning changes (Bill 6) may be more effective.
- Councilmember Cordero proposed a permitted interaction group for further stakeholder input.
- Deputy Director Brian Gallagher (DPP) committed to providing analysis on parcel sizes.
Key Outcomes
- Resolution 26-32: Amended to CD1 and adopted.
- Resolution 26-45: Adopted.
- Resolution 26-40: Adopted with support from Disability Communication Access Board.
- Bill 11: Reported out for second reading and scheduled for public hearing.
- Bill 18: Amended to the posted CD1 (OCS 2026-0110) and deferred to a future date pending additional data from UHERO (due March 20) and DPP, as well as further stakeholder engagement. The committee agreed to continue discussions through an agendized meeting to comply with Sunshine Law.
Meeting Transcript
Aloha and good afternoon, everyone. It's Tuesday, March 3rd, 2026, and the meeting is 2 30 p.m. Will the committee on housing homelessness and parks meeting please come to order? I'd like to welcome committee members, Vice Chair, Tolba, Council members, Anishimoto and Wire Councilmember Cordero is on her way. Pursuant to Hawaii revised statute, Section 92-3.7. This meeting. Oh, and Councilmember Kia Aina. This meeting will be conducted as remote meeting by interactive conference technology with the following procedures in effect for the meeting. Members of the public will be allowed to provide oral testimony on all items on the agenda when each item is taken up in two ways in person in the council chamber and remotely before testifying. Each person shall state their name for the record and will be limited to a one-minute presentation on each item. All persons who registered to testify in person will be called upon first. Persons who have not registered will be given an opportunity to testify following the registered testifiers. Once in-person testimony has concluded, I will proceed to remote testimony via video conference or phone. When I call your name or the last red digits of your phone number, please follow the prompt and unmute. As both English and Olala Hawaii are official languages of the state of Hawaii pursuant to Article 15, Section 4 of the Hawaii State Constitution and HRS section 1-13. Members of the public may testify in either language. For oral testimonies offered in Olala Hawaii, additional time may be necessary and will be allowed for the testifier to provide an English translation of their testimony. HRS section 92-3.7 requires that all votes at a remote meeting be conducted by roll call unless unanimous. Therefore, I will first call for objections. If there are any, I will call for a roll call vote. Written testimonies, including the testifiers' address, email address, phone number, will be available to the public as described on the posted agenda. As a courtesy, please turn off or silence all cell phones for the duration of the meeting. For your information, Councilmember Augitoba filed with the city clerk's office a disclosure of interest statement identified as council communion communication 29 for Bill 18 reporting uh referring to affordable housing. Agenda item number one, resolution 26-32. Accepting gifts to the city of three high back traditional benches and three bronze plaques valued at $3,823.53 cents from Greg Wong to be installed at Kaimuna Beach Park. Members, please note that we posted on the agenda a proposed CD1 to the resolution identified as OCS 2026-0104-2-19-2026, 322 p.m. And a summary of the amendments is listed on the agenda. Here with us today, we have Deputy Director Khaolani Poo. Do we do not see uh Deputy Director here? Is there any other director that wants to speak in her place? Just kidding. You guys don't have to. Okay, guys, it's a bench. I think everything's fine. If you have questions, email Kehau later. Thank you. Um members, we are in discussion. Seeing none. The chair recommends that resolution 26-32 be amended to the posted CD1. Huh? Oh clerks, are there any in-person testimony? Sure, there are none. Are there any remote testifiers? Chair, there are none. Thank you so much. The chair recommends that resolution 26-32 be amended to the posted CD1 identified as OCS 2026-0104. Are there any objections? Any reservations? Hearing none so ordered. The chair then recommends that resolution 26-32 CD1 be reported out for adoption.
openpublica.com