Gov. Josh Green revamps housing proclamation
Oct. 25—Green's original 60-day emergency proclamation, issued July 17, created a new state emergency housing development approval panel intended to get 50, 000 homes built faster across the islands.
Gov. Josh Green on Tuesday issued a third emergency proclamation to stimulate development of affordable housing, satisfying plaintiffs who withdrew a lawsuit they had filed over concerns that Green's proclamation removed safeguards on protecting the environment, cultural resources and government transparency.
Earthjustice, a nonprofit public-interest law organization, sued the state and Green's former Chief Housing Officer Nani Medeiros on behalf of the Sierra Club, affordable-housing and Native Hawaiian advocates, the American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii and some residents in West Maui.
Green's original 60-day emergency proclamation, issued July 17, created a new state emergency housing development approval panel intended to get 50, 000 homes built faster across the islands.
In issuing his original emergency proclamation, Green said he intended to modify it over the following year in response to concerns.
In response to original criticisms, Green issued an updated 60-day, emergency proclamation on Sept. 15, which also failed to address the lawsuit's concerns over suspending state laws requiring public hearings, assessment of environmental impacts and protections for Native Hawaiian burials.
Green's third emergency proclamation, which he issued Tuesday, reinstates County Council oversight over most affordable housing projects and no longer suspends Hawaii's Sunshine Law, burial protections and environmental review requirements, according to the groups that sued.
Green did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Kekai Keahi, of Na 'Ohana o Lele Housing Committee, said in a statement :
"We are keeping a watchful eye to see what the Green Administration does with this new proclamation. It is good that they recognized their mistake and removed the worst of the suspensions included in the original emergency proclamation on housing. We are committed to standing watch over every action the administration takes under this new proclamation to ensure the community's voice is not ignored."
Green's original emergency proclamation created the so-called Build Beyond Barriers housing development approval panel to fast-track housing development.
But exemptions from state laws unleashed intense criticism and the Earthjustice lawsuit challenging its creation and existence, including waiving it from the state's Sunshine Law, environmental reviews, Land Use Commission and fears that it would provide a windfall for private developers to build market-rate homes.
Green's second emergency proclamation clarified that the work of the Build Beyond Barriers panel would focus solely on developing "affordable " housing and will be subject to the Sunshine Law and environmental, historic preservation and environmental reviews, among other changes.
It continued to give Medeiros extraordinary powers to approve projects, which led to a backlash and death threats to Medeiros and her family.
She resigned Sept. 7 and gave a month's notice. Green said at the time that the way Medeiros was treated helped prompt his second emergency proclamation.
The second one also changed the way the panel would operate by following normal Sunshine Law requirements, including public notice of upcoming meetings.
Meetings will be broadcast, similar to other post-pandemic hearings, and public testimony will be accepted as long as speakers adhere to items on the agenda and comply with time limits.
Green said in issuing the second emergency proclamation that it also would specifically exempt housing construction in Lahaina following the devastating Aug. 8 wildfire that killed 99 people and immediately prompted online conspiracies that the fire was set intentionally by the unspecified "government " to create a land grab by private developers to transform the historic seaside community into something unwanted by Lahaina residents.
"To be very clear, this has nothing to do with building in Lahaina, " Green told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser at the time. "We will let the people of Lahaina decide what they want."
In a statement Tuesday, David Henkin, senior attorney for Earthjustice, which represents the parties in Na 'Ohana o Lele, et al. v. Governor Green, et al., said :
"We appreciate that the Governor heard many of our core concerns and appears to have tried to address them in the revised proclamations. It remains deeply troubling, however, that the Governor continues to claim the authority to suspend laws whenever he feels like it to address longstanding public policy issues, however important. We are taking a 'wait-and-see' approach. If the governor tries to advance housing projects that are not in the public interest, we will be back in court."
The suit was withdrawn without prejudice, giving the plaintiffs the option to challenge future changes in future emergency proclamations on housing.
Roslyn Manaikawakea, president of E Ola Kakou Hawai 'i—a plaintiff in the suit—said in a statement :
"We know that there are quite a few new housing projects in the works on Kaua 'i and throughout the islands, and we are committed to making sure none of them undermines the public's interests in protecting our ancestors, our natural resources, and our full involvement in the decisions that affect the quality of our lives. Our kupuna taught us 'i ka nana no a 'ike, ' which means 'by observing, one learns.' As the governor, Josh Green needs to observe what is happening, and learn. Learn to see through the eyes of the people."
