What will the next Building Beyond Barriers Working Group meeting hold?
by Wayne Tanaka, Chapter Director
Next Tuesday, August 29, 9:30-11:30am will be the second Build Beyond Barriers Working Group meeting established by Governor Green’s housing emergency proclamation. This will be the first meeting with project proposals for discussion - although it appears that these projects only need to be approved by the Lead Housing Officer, and not the Working Group.
Tuesday’s agenda is focused on developments on Maui and Hawaiʻi Island, ostensibly in response to the increased need for housing due to the wildfires. However, no details were provided to the Working Group about these projects until late Friday afternoon (after 3 p.m.), via a meeting packet filled with broken links that supposedly provided additional project information. Moreover, this meeting packet was not posted on the Working Group’s website for public review until at least 6:30 p.m., with no apparent notice to the public. Accordingly, the supposed opportunities for the Working Group to review and discuss these projects, and for the public to provide written comments (no oral testimony will be submitted) for the Working Group’s consideration, appear superficial at best.
Public comments may be critical to ensuring that the Working Group - with its limited scope and breadth of on-the-ground expertise - can flag at least some of the issues and concerns specific to the projects being discussed. While I was told early last week that project details would be posted on the Working Group website here, they were not posted until well after close of business Friday evening, without any notice to even the Working Group members. Apparently, the public was expected to simply check the website over and over again, until they happened to see the meeting packet over the weekend - with critical details alluded to via erroneous internet links, to documents that do not otherwise appear readily accessible - and then review and offer comments on them by Monday morning. That’s why hard…
Written testimony, questions, and concerns can be emailed to gov.housing@hawaii.gov, with “testimony” in the subject line + the meeting agenda number. Feel free to also cc: hawaii.chapter@sierraclub.org to ensure that I receive your thoughts in as timely a manner as possible (it is unclear what the process will be to forward public comments to the Working Group members, including whether they will be sent to us over the weekend). Verbal testimony at the meeting will not be accepted.
You can watch next week’s meeting live on the Governor’s Facebook here, ʻŌlelo TV’s Facebook here, or on cable television viewing ʻŌlelo, channel 49. Unlike the first meeting, the public can also attend the meeting in-person at the State Capitol, Conference Room 329, 415 South Beretania Street, Honolulu HI 96813. Advance notice and public in-person viewing is a big change after the last meeting’s confusion, poor quality live stream, and the expulsion of a member of the public and Earthjustice attorney David Henkin - although, as described above, significant concerns remain about the lack of a meaningful opportunity for public review and comment on development projects slated for discussion.
I will be at the meeting on Tuesday and I look forward to reporting back to you. Our position has not changed and we remain committed to defending our home from an unaffordable-housing proclamation that violates our constitution, eschews public transparency, dismisses the legal rights and interests of Native Hawaiians and the public, and pursues a housing-for-all policy that stands to only widen our existing wealth gap, and exacerbate our housing crisis. If you have not yet, I invite you to stand with us by taking this pledge and to reach out if you have an organization or group of friends who would like to learn more about the dangers facing our islands, our communities, and our democracy.
And ICYMI - in recent weeks, more concerns over the emergency proclamation have been raised in the media, including “More questions than answers: County to have four seats on panel created by governor’s housing proclamation”, in the Hawaiʻi Tribune Herald; “Green’s Proclamation Takes Away Tools That Protect Cultural Heritage”, by Clare Apana, Kaniloa Kamaunu, Ui Hotta, and Carol Kamekona; “For developers, it’s profit above all else”, by Gary Hooser; and “Emergency order on housing flawed”, by Thomas Brandt.