Peter Young of Ho`okuleana LLC submitted this commentary regarding the BOE’s approval of the collection of school impact fees only in West Hawaii.
The DOE and media need to let West Hawaii residents know that the new School Impact Fees don’t just apply to developers – also included are any individual who builds on his existing vacant lot – and only in West Hawaii, not in any other community in the state.
Most residents have either given a deaf ear or cheered because developers were being dinged – not realizing the severe negative impact the new school fees will have on them and the local economy.
People need to know the whole truth: these impact fees will be required on all residential building permits – including existing individual vacant lot owners.
So, a West Hawaii lot owner building on his lot in Kalaoa or Waikoloa or Waimea, etc will now need to cough up a school impact fee to build his home, while folks in Hilo, Puna, Kahului, Pukalani, Kaneohe, Ewa, Lihue, Kapaa, etc, etc building on their lots won’t.
To further insult the process, DOE has no definitive plans to build new schools in West Hawaii – however, new schools are being planned and built on Oahu and Maui.
The losers in this program are the unsuspecting West Hawaii lot owners who, after scrimping and saving their last nickel to build their dream home on an already high-priced lot, will stand dumbfounded in front of the County building permit processor when he says “you now have to write a check (to the tune of up to $5,000) to the DOE in Honolulu before you can get your permit – and, oh, by the way, West Hawaii lot owner, from all other communities across the entire state of Hawaii, only you get this privilege to pay to DOE to fund a school the DOE presently has no plans to build.”
I appreciate that Bobby Command was able to represent Mayor Kenoi at the BOE meeting, conveying the County administration’s strong message opposing this discrimination against West Hawaii residents.
This program will have no real affect on developers. Developers already either have permit approval conditions that include a school fee or they negotiate and pay fees to the DOE on residential projects they develop (and, DOE has confirmed they are collecting these fees from developers.) So, the concern is not about developers.
I support the idea of impact fees as useful tools to address needed infrastructure and that the process of generating fees needs to be transparent, consistent, discernible and equitable – and, ultimately, fair.
I oppose the West Hawaii proposal because it is not fair – it involves a statewide program that discriminates against one portion of the state population, West Hawaii residents.
“Fairness” is the foundation of the impact fee process.
Given a statewide school system, no immediate plans by DOE to build a school in West Hawaii, no funding for a new West Hawaii school noted in the DOE CIP budget, equal need for school facilities across the state: how is it fair that West Hawaii lot owners are the only ones forced to pay a fee to build a school and other communities across the state do not have to?
The DOE is a statewide school system, this ought to be a statewide program – impact fees should be applied across the state, and include developers and individual lot owners in the program.
Mayor Kenoi summed this up best when he said: “This is the wrong plan being imposed in the wrong way at the wrong time.”
