LIHUE — A bill for an ordinance that has made its way before the Committee of the Whole on Wednesday after a public hearing was held on July 17 that would change Kauai county code 1987, relating to additional dwelling units on lots excluding residential was heard before a five-member committee Wednesday.
The amendment would give applicants a Dec. 31, 2021, deadline to obtain re-certification for an additional dwelling unit from the Planning Department.
The previous deadline was Feb. 15, 2015.
The amendment would also extend the original deadline for obtaining an Additional Dwelling Unit (ADU) Facilities clearance form to June 15, 2007.
“The bill is essentially a proposal to reopen the re-certification process for ADU’s on non-residentially zoned lands,” Planning Director Ka‘aina Hull said before the committee.
Hull added that a previous review to a bill a few years ago extended the sunset as far as to when the ADUs were required to be constructed but there still was a closure on the re-certification process in 2015.
“This just reopens it up for those that did not re-certify by Feb. 15, 2015,” he said. “When you folks reviewed it several years ago to extend it to February 2015, I think there were a couple hundred ADUs that it applied to.”
The council appropriated funds for the planning department to use to actively inform ADUs that there is a re-certification process and a deadline, Hull said.
“We did radio ads and various social media postings and we actually called every single property owner and sent mailings to every property instructing them to have this deadline, that they have a deadline to meet,” Hull said. “Most of them did come in and re-certify. Roughly 30 didn’t. If this bill is adopted as proposed, it re-opens it up for those 30 essentially.”
Hull said he and the planning department stands with no objections to the bill but is always concerned about proliferating more development and therefore requiring infrastructure into agricultural land.
The bill was noted to have “fallen through the cracks” as it was sent to the council in early 2018 and was recognized as an outstanding bill “floating around.”
“But this number is really nominal, we have no objections to it,” he said, adding the Planning Commission voted to accept it as written and send it back to the committee of the whole, but one concern has come up recently.
Member Ross Kagawa stated that he recalled the deadline for the re-certification process had already been extended twice before in the past, and questioned why the bill was before the committee again.
“If we keep having policymakers not support departments in deadlines, to me it is not efficient to operate in that manner,” Kagawa said. “You give a right or a privilege that has such a date. Such a date is for a reason. You don’t want to burden the department continuously with something that it opens up the door for others that say, ‘why can’t we have it?’”
Member Felicia Cowden clarified with Hull that the 30 who did not go through the re-certification process had not yet built an ADU, which Hull confirmed.
Bruce Hart gave public testimony, agreeing with vice-chair Kagawa’s interpretation of the bill.
“There’s a hesitation,” Hart said. “I’m just in general, I don’t like seeing these ADUs. They had their opportunity before. I don’t know any of them. I don’t know any of these 30, but they had their opportunity just like everybody else. Sometimes there has to be a deadline. People get this idea that it will just be extended and extended, then it’s going to be extended again. And it takes resources, planning department, council. Look we’re sitting here talking about this.”
In a final comment on the bill, Kagawa said he would rather see the entire island of Kauai that owns the agricultural property to have the same opportunity and that would be his reason for voting no on the bill.
The three voting member committee of the whole (Cowden and Arryl Kaneshiro were present, but not voting members) motioned to refer the bill to the full council unanimously with a roll-call vote.
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Ryan Collins, county reporter, can be reached at 245-0424 or rcollins@thegardenisland.com.
