Fast-tracked hospital The planned $300 million Pacific Health Center on 210 acres of former pineapple land adjacent to the H-2 freeway in Waipio would bypass all city requirements and review under a bill up for final approval next week in the state House.
concerns city officials
A state bill would
bypass city approval
of the Waipio complex
By Bruce Dunford
Associated Press
It has generated a turf war between legislators backing the developer and the city government where officials insist it would set a bad precedent for the state to take over what is normally the county's jurisdiction.
The "fast-track" bill for the development of the complex of medical-related facilities, including a replacement hospital for Wahiawa General Hospital, is being pushed by Rep. Marcus Oshiro, a member of the Wahiawa Hospital Association.
Lawmakers authorized $147 million in tax-exempt special-purpose revenue bonds in 1999 for eight planned projects. The bill extends that authorization, due to expire June 30 of this year, to 2008. Such bonds impose no financial liability on the state.
Pacific Health Community Inc., the developer, is a for-profit arm of the nonprofit Wahiawa Hospital Association and is headed by Rodney Sato, who said the state legislation was sought when it appeared certain City Council members were balking on approving the project.
Although Sato said yesterday that PHC has asked that it be changed, the current tax key map number identified in the House bill to be exempted from all county permitting processes applies to 436 acres, including part of Castle & Cooke Homes' planned Koa Ridge housing development adjacent to the health complex.
Castle & Cooke Home's vice president for development and construction, Alan Arakawa, said he was unaware that the 226 acres beyond the PHC's 210 acres would be included in the exemption.
Castle & Cooke has reached an agreement for PHC to acquire the 210 acres for the health complex, he said. "It certainly wasn't our intention to piggyback" on PHC's exemption, said Arakawa.
The bill says the "medical mall or other settings, a medical technology park, medical-related residential areas and general residential and commercial areas and appropriate infrastructure situation on the parcel of land identified by tax map key 9-4-6:01" will be exempted from "all statutes, ordinances, charter provisions and rules of any governmental agency relating to planning, zoning, construction standards for subdivisions, development and improvement of land."
The measure, however, requires the project to meet minimum health and safety requirements and abide by utility services requirements. It would give the project automatic city approval 45 days after the preliminary plans and specifications are submitted to the City Council unless the Council votes to reject it, a time period city officials say is much too short considering the magnitude and complexity of the project.
It also calls for all design and construction standards for the projects' dwelling units to abide by rules adopted by the Housing and Community Development Corp. of Hawaii, a state agency recently under fire from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Sato said PHC asked lawmakers to amend the bill to make the project comply with all applicable city building standards, but the change has yet to be made.
If approved by the House, the measure would go to the Senate.
Councilman Charles Djou, chairman of the Council's Zoning Committee, called the House bill "terrible legislation."
"I think it's a great project," said Djou, adding that the Council "was working very diligently to get it through as quickly as possible. I was trying to grease the wheels as best I could. I don't know why they would need House Bill 550.
"This violates home rule," he added. "It usurps the city's authority and is a violation of the basic principle of law that rules should apply equally to everyone."
Djou said he was concerned that it appears that the Castle & Cooke property covered by the tax map key number, beyond that going to HPC, was included in the exemption, although he stressed he supports the company's Koa Ridge development.
During a Zoning Committee hearing on Wednesday, Oshiro (D, Wahiawa-Poamoho), said his decision to introduce a bill to "fast-track" the HPC project came because of "ambiguities in the law" that might send it back for review by the state Land Use Commission.
Also pending before the House is a bill exempting the project from obtaining a "certificate of need" from the State Health Planning and Development Agency.
"I owe a fiduciary duty to my hospital, my community and the state to try to save this hospital from getting caught in these ambiguities in the law that cost time and money," Oshiro said. "I can't sit on the hospital board and permit the hospital to spend $6 million to get nowhere."
Oshiro asked the Council to forgive him for "crossing the home-rule line. I know all counties fear having the state dictate where a landfill should be or not be and try to decide local issues without input from the counties."
City & County of Honolulu
