DPP reports permit backlog improvements but commercial reviews and 'Bill 7' projects still face capacity constraints

The Department of Planning and Permitting (DPP) provided an extensive briefing on the building permit backlog and the status of projects created under the Bill 7 program.

DPP Director Diane Takuchi Apuna said the department now pulls permit data from the HNL Build portal (launched Aug. 4, 2025) and that the platform produced a spike in applications in September and October 2025 as stakeholders adapted to the new system. DPP presented multi-year charts showing permits created versus issued across all permit types and noted improvements in residential review workflows: prescreen averages about 13 days and residential code review averages about 7 days per review cycle when applications are complete.

DPP cautioned the committee that commercial projects remain bottlenecked by staffing constraints, particularly in electrical plan review, and said the department is using third-party reviewers while pursuing hiring for engineers. For Bill 7 projects specifically, DPP reported 59 projects in the pipeline: 6 completed with certificates of occupancy (189 units added to O'ahu's housing stock), 16 under construction with building permits, and 35 under review (28 with applicants and 7 with city or other agencies). That universe amounts to roughly 1,752 potential units including built and anticipated units.

On grants, DPP reported three preconstruction subsidy applications pending (program recently opened) and six post-construction grants awarded totaling $1,900,000 since 2022. DPP said the preconstruction subsidy (up to $50,000 per unit) is more attractive to developers than the post-construction grant (around $12,000 per unit), and that the department anticipates about $4,000,000 in funding for the next fiscal year for the preconstruction grants.

Committee members pressed DPP on how to improve clearance rates and the backlog; DPP recommended improved applicant responsiveness through the HNL Build portal and emphasized the department's ongoing use of analytics to target hiring and third-party review resources. Council members also raised transparency measures, such as showing more permit details on the public portal and flagging Bill 7 projects in permitting reports and neighborhood notifications; DPP agreed to consider enhancements and to provide council with linkable summaries for constituent use.

The briefing prompted multiple follow-up requests from council members for comparative dashboards, staffing solutions (including incentive pay ranges), and closer tracking of certificate-of-occupancy timing on completed projects.