The Honolulu city government is preparing to introduce a new system to shorten the lengthy building permit process.
\nAt a press conference on November 15, Acting Director Don Takeuchi-Apuna of the Department of Planning and Permitting (DPP) of the Municipal Government prepared a more efficient building permit process through a new system, including automated document review, staff recruitment, and classification of residential and commercial permits. stated that the purpose was to
\nCurrently, DPP’s average building permit period is 298 days, of which 175 days are known to be spent on finding and correcting defects in applications.
\nActing Director Takeuchi-Apuna said the goal is to reduce the time it takes to find and correct application defects to less than seven days.
\nIn addition, he pointed out that to operate the automated process more successfully, six employees should be assigned to the task of verifying compliance with the laws and regulations in the residential area.
\nAccording to a report by Star Advertiser, DPP’s Residential Compliance Inspector vacancies currently stand at 24 positions in two positions.
\nDPP is planning to recruit 15 people in addition to 6 inspectors for compliance checks in residential districts, and it is known that they are planning to supply insufficient labor through an internship partnership with Honolulu Community College.
\nIn the Commercial Zone, 17 positions in 6 positions are vacant. The DPP is said to currently have 80 vacancies.
\nReportedly, DPP expects it to take six months to a year to prepare for the introduction of automated tasks.
\nDPP is also seeking to transform the final stage of building permit issuance into automation.
\nActing director Takeuchi-Apuna said that the average duration of the final phase is 60 days, with the goal of eventually reducing it to 7 days.
\nThe City Planning and Permitting Bureau has been criticized for taking too long a building permit process.
\nLong procedural periods have often led to attempts to shorten them illegally.
\nFor example, in 2017, there was an incident in which a compliance inspector in a residential district received $100,000 in black money on condition of shortening the permit process period, and in February of this year, the inspector received a bribe of $1,000 and was charged with meeting with an architect in private. There was an indictment.
\nMeanwhile, former DPP director Uchida and chief innovation strategist Danet Maruyama left their positions at DPP earlier this year due to differences of opinion with Mayor Rick Blangiad.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"