In late December 2020, Mayor Kirk Caldwell signed Bill 2 (2020) – now ordinance 20-41, approved by the then Honolulu City Council. This Bill, developed in part from the Oahu Resilience Strategy, is focused on cutting carbon emissions and hopefully streamlining the permitting process.
The Honolulu Board of REALTORS® and its City Affairs Committee (CAC) heavily focused on Bill 2 (2020). The Bill extensively updates the LUO and parking regulations for the first time in over three decades. The Bill intends to reduce and occasionally eliminate mandatory parking requirements for future development. The original version of Bill 2 (2020) would have mandated the unbundling of parking for all newly developed condominiums – which would not allow parking stalls to be deeded along with the condominium unit purchased, regardless of location.
HBR and CAC conducted a survey amongst its members (disseminated in our weekly e-news) that enabled us to obtain critical data showcasing how mandating unbundling parking would negatively impact various key aspects such as:
- marketability - as the majority of homebuyers request parking with their units
- affordability of units - as the unit’s price will not sufficiently decrease and owners’ monthly expenses would increase
- the overall quality of the neighborhood where roads are already congested.
We provided this survey data to the Council members and stakeholders involved and were able to make a strong impact – thanks to our members completing the survey. This data assisted in amending unbundled parking to an option rather than a mandate. The final version of Bill 2 (2020) no longer mandates unbundling but does allow it, thus giving developers the option to do what is best for a specific development.
Click read the details on Bill 2 (2020) and the Oahu Resilience Strategy.
Thank you to our members who participated in this survey and for exemplifying how important everyone’s voice is. Please keep this in mind when HBR conducts future surveys, and we strongly encourage everyone to participate.
