NAWILIWILI — The Kaua‘i County Council back in 2005 approved rezoning in Kukui‘ula to allow development of 1,500 units on a 1,000-acre property along Lawa‘i Road. The petitioners, landowner Alexander & Baldwin and developer JMB, agreed as a condition of
NAWILIWILI — The Kaua‘i County Council back in 2005 approved rezoning in Kukui‘ula to allow development of 1,500 units on a 1,000-acre property along Lawa‘i Road.
The petitioners, landowner Alexander & Baldwin and developer JMB, agreed as a condition of the permit to build 75 affordable homes for its employees and other Kaua‘i residents.
The petitioner reserves the right, for 90 years, to buy those affordable homes back at the original sale price, plus any capital improvements and an annual interest rate of 1 percent.
The buy-back protection was intended to not only provide affordable homes to Kaua‘i residents, but also to prevent speculation.
Now, five years later, a proposed amendment to the condition would reduce the 90-year buy-back protection to 25 years.
“If this bill passes, the affordable housing will become unaffordable when the buy-back clause expires,” said former Councilwoman JoAnn Yukimura, who helped craft the original bill when she was on the council.
“Twenty-five years may seem like a long time, but even in the span of just a lifetime, 25 years is very short,” she said.
When the new, proposed buy-back-period expires, Yukimura said, affordable housing will likely be “more precious than ever.”
Community members would then question the reasons the current council approved such changes, but it would be too late, she said.
In the 2005 rezoning, the petitioners would originally be allowed to build more than 3,000 units, but they agreed to only 1,500, plus a minimum of 75 affordable-housing units offered to Kukui‘ula resort employees and other first-time home-buyers.
Those affordable units will be built between ‘Ele‘ele and Koloa, and 45 of them will be reserved for employees of the project, and the other 30 to others within the county of Kaua‘i.
Only after 90 years, the owner, or likely the descendants of the owner, can sell the property at market value.
The amendment to eliminate the restriction after 25 years states that the 90-year buy-back condition “may raise marketing concerns, be difficult to administer in the long-term, and significantly limit a home-buyer’s equity gain.”
The council Planning Committee deferred discussion and any decision on the bill to the next committee meeting, likely on June 16.
• Léo Azambuja, staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 252) or lazambuja@kauaipubco.com.
