Voters approve affordable housing fund

Wednesday, November 08, 2006
The Maui News
By EDWIN TANJI, City Editor

WAILUKU - Maui voters adopted a mandate for Maui County to set aside 2 percent of real property tax revenues for an affordable housing fund in Tuesday's county special election. Along with an affordable housing policy approved last week by the council, Council Housing Chairman Danny Mateo said the county will be moving to establish affordable housing for the community.

"It's the next step. We're looking forward to what will be accomplished but I see nothing but positives," he said. "With this, we can really start talking about affordability. I'm excited. We really feel this is a mandate for the county."

But affordable housing advocate Stan Franco said his grass-roots group, Housing for the Local People, will be following up with the county to ensure that the funds are "used to build houses for our people."

"That's the reason for the fund, and we are going to watching closely to be sure it is used for what it is intended," he said.

Voters on Tuesday also adopted charter changes to split the responsibilities of the Department of Public Works and Environmental Management and to set a stricter time limit on damage claims against the county.

The amendment affecting claims against the county was largely a housekeeping measure to bring county law in line with state laws. It sets a six-month time limit for a party to file a claim of injury against the county. The limit previously was two years.

The charter change will go into effect as soon as the county clerk certifies the results of the voting.

The decision to split the public works department into two new departments will take longer as the county administration will need to rework several provisions of the charter to implement the amendment.

One will be a new Department of Public Works, which will be responsible for roads and administration of building and subdivision laws. The other, a Department of Environmental Management, will take over responsibilities for waste management including programs for recycling, litter control and beautification of the county.

Maui Sierra Club Chairman Lance Holter said he hoped the split will help the new Department of Public Works to focus on building permits to speed processing to allow more homes to be built.

"It should free up public works to focus on building permits and land use," he said. "We need to get local housing built and not wait three months to six months just for a permit to be issued."

With the new Department of Environmental Management, Holter said he hoped the next mayor will keep Rob Parsons, a longtime Sierra Club member, as the department's director. Parsons was named an environmental coordinator by Mayor Alan Arakawa.

Even if Arakawa loses, Holter said he hoped Parsons would remain in a position to deal with environmental concerns.

"I think he's a great spokesperson from the sand issues to vehicle dumping," he said. "There are just huge problems, and he had emerged as the person who will work to get the kinks out. We need to get some solutions."

Most of the focus though was on the amendment to provide an affordable housing fund by diverting a portion of the county's tax revenues for four years.

"I feel really good about it. I feel even better for Maui County," said Tom Blackburn-Rodrigues, chairman for YES on Charter Amendment 2.

"I think there's been a strong public concern about affordable housing. We had the debate on the work force housing bill and we see this as another tool to move forward in a comprehensive manner to get housing for our community."

(read original story here)