Women’s league
opposes reduction
in housing fees

By Jerry Tune
Star-Bulletin

The League of Women Voters says the state should reject developer Jack Myers' request for a reduction in affordable housing fees that he was required to pay as part of his One Archer Lane condominium project.

Myers has asked the state Hawaii Community Development Authority, which oversees the Kakaako development, to refund $770,000 of the $2.13 million in fees paid to the state in lieu of including 66 affordable units in the project. Based on a formula in HCDA rules, Myers contends he is due the refund because he has dropped prices of One Archer Lane condos by 10 percent or more. Will Beaton, Myers Corp. senior vice president, said if the reduction is approved the developer still will have paid $1.36 million in affordable housing fees and $3.37 million in public facilities fees to the authority.

"That's almost $15,000 per unit (of the 330 residential units)," Beaton said. On the mainland, these types of fees for luxury projects would be only about $5,000 a unit, he said yesterday at an HCDA meeting.

However, Michelle Spalding Matson, representing the League of Women Voters, pointed out that under the old HCDA rules the developer would have been required to pay $6.8 million in affordable housing fees. The fee schedule was changed in 1995 to encourage development in the slow economy and Myers paid $2.13 million based on the original sales prices. With the 10 percent price reduction approved last August, the average sales price is now $277,000.

Myers Corp. says it has experienced cost overuns of $7.5 million on the One Archer Lane project across King Street from Straub Hospital. The HCDA will vote on the request next month.

In other business, the authority approved a request from the Center for a Sustainable Future Inc. to lease 405 Windward Oahu acres, which the authority owns, for two years at $1 a year.

The nonprofit center hopes to eventually turn more than 600 acres in Heeia into an agriculture and aquaculture venture largely for educational purposes. The wetlands area now is used for grazing. The center already holds a lease from the Bishop Estate on the 90-acre Heeia pond.