City Must Reform How Planning Department Works With Developers
Documents in a class-action suit against Haseko should provoke an ethics investigation and change how city planners work with developers.
Hawaii has a reputation for its byzantine, paper-pushing approach to government regulation of聽business and development. Our state typically shows up near the bottom of .
It鈥檚 understandable then, to some extent, that Honolulu’s Department of Planning and Permitting tries to provide聽significant assistance for big development projects with lots of moving parts and complex circumstances.
But the questionable way that DPP is going about providing that assistance demands investigation by city ethics officials on behalf of voters and taxpayers who wonder, rightly, whether the department is looking out for the public鈥檚 interests or greasing the skids for big developers.
Civil Beat鈥檚 Anita Hofschneider detailed some of the more outrageous examples of DPP’s assistance in a story earlier this week. That piece and related previous reporting focus on the lingering dispute between homeowners who bought聽residences in the Ocean Pointe and Hoakalei developments in Ewa created by the Japanese firm Haseko.
In planning stages for many years, the development was sold, in part, on the promise to potential buyers that Haseko would develop a marina on the property that would provide access to the open sea. After selling more than $1 billion worth of homes, with individual homeowners paying as much as $100,000 extra聽because of the marina, Haseko announced in 2011 that instead, it would build a land-locked lagoon.
Homeowners filed a class-action suit, saying the downgraded amenity would make their homes less valuable (a point that Haseko disputes). A jury agreed, awarding the plaintiffs $27 million in damages in September; but the award was subsequently thrown out. The case is now being appealed.
An attorney representing the homeowners sent a 53-page document to the Honolulu City Council and city Ethics Commission last month asking for an investigation of the DPP’s relationship with Haseko.
鈥淚 write to you because many people believe that our city is run by and for developers,鈥 wrote attorney Terrence Revere. 鈥淯nfortunately, the documents I have reviewed in the civil case confirm that there is an absurd relationship between (DPP) and Haseko.鈥
The document reveals a long list of incidents in which DPP officials appeared to advise Haseko on how to get the project approved with insider knowledge and pointers that might not be given to smaller developments or to individuals.
It also shows the move by Director of Planning and Permitting David Tanoue from his position with the city to a new job with an engineering firm, where he serves as a consultant to the Haseko project. And it reveals DPP chief planner Kathy Sokugawa telling Haseko what it needs to do to clear the City Council rezoning process.
鈥淭he City and County government that鈥檚 supposed to be protecting the homeowners and consumers was instead working to undermine the promises made to them.鈥 — State Rep. Matthew LoPresti
In the latter incident, Sokugawa sounds strikingly more like a paid consultant to the project than a city planning employee doing the public鈥檚 business. Emails included in the complaint show that a DPP staffer, Bob Stanfield, reviewed Haseko鈥檚 public testimony on the Ewa Development Plan before it was presented publicly.
As part of the letter to the City Council and Ethics Commission, Revere makes multiple recommendations regarding how DPP should reform its process of dealing with developers.
For its own good, DPP ought to take them seriously. Director of Planning and Permitting George Atta tells Civil Beat, “We don鈥檛 have a special policy when dealing with developers of large projects.” Perhaps it’s time to create one.
In particular, there ought to be bright lines of separation that guide how DPP employees interact with developers, if for nothing else than to avoid even the appearance of impropriety. Even if some of these instances may be reasonably explained, taken together, they create a significant ethical cloud over the office.
Second, meetings between developers and DPP must be more transparent. Developers certainly have proprietary plans and other interests that they shouldn鈥檛 have to disclose in public meetings. But DPP should strive for a transparent process that allows it to properly provide information to and oversight for developer projects.
One good start would be to provide public notice for such meetings and to publish minutes afterward. Proprietary information could be appropriately redacted beforehand. That would be a significant improvement over the current loose collaboration with Haseko on this matter, as one Haseko consultant described its relationship with DPP.
State Rep. Matthew LoPresti is both a Haseko homeowner and the lead plaintiff in the class action lawsuit. His review of the correspondence and interactions between Haseko and DPP officials left him outraged.
鈥淚 felt betrayed,鈥 he told Civil Beat. 鈥淭he City and County government that鈥檚 supposed to be protecting the homeowners and consumers was instead working to undermine the promises made to them.鈥
Without significant reforms at DPP, LoPresti won鈥檛 be the last taxpayer to feel this way. City Council members ought to take that sense of betrayal seriously, and the Ethics Commission should waste no time in opening an inquiry.
