Council committee reports DPP director-designate out for adoption after extended Q&A on permitting, staffing and enforcement

The Honolulu City Council Committee on Zoning on Feb. 13 reported out for adoption the nomination of Don E. Takeuchi Opuna to serve as director of the Department of Planning and Permitting (DPP) after the director-designate answered an extended round of questions from council members about department performance, staffing and enforcement.

Takeuchi Opuna opened by thanking the committee and noting his tenure since September 2022. He summarized departmental accomplishments in reducing the permitting prescreen backlog and shortening code-review turnaround times: “we tackled that with improvements in setting standard operating procedures, goals, quotas, and we brought that prescreen down from over six months … to currently, I believe it's less than two weeks,” he said. He said the department moved to fully electronic plan review and upgraded its e-plan systems, and that DPP is implementing new permitting software with AI-assisted code review expected to come online by the end of the year to speed reviews.

Committee members pressed on several recurring operational issues. Vice Chair Dos Santos Tam and others asked for specifics about vacancy-filling goals and whether DPP is meeting its targets for hiring; Takeuchi Opuna said staff are being hired but did not provide a precise count at the hearing and pledged to follow up with specifics. Councilmembers repeatedly urged faster action on long-standing enforcement problems where fines accumulate against noncompliant property owners; Takeuchi Opuna said the department is working to add enforcement capacity and to consolidate enforcement provisions across municipal code chapters.

Councilmembers also raised rulemaking speed and statutory deadlines for permit approvals. Takeuchi Opuna acknowledged capacity constraints and said that rulemaking and other deliverables require prioritization and additional staffing and technology to meet statutory timelines consistently. Several members asked about phasing out nonconforming short-term rental uses; Takeuchi Opuna said the department would consider approaches including a plan tied to a sale or transfer of property and that such a policy would likely require council direction.

Councilmember Weier and others pressed on pay differentials and recruitment for technical staff (plan examiners, inspectors, planners). Takeuchi Opuna said DPP is working with human resources to reclassify roles and pursue salary adjustments to address shortages, and that the department plans to use salary savings to onboard additional plans examiners immediately where possible. On new grant programs (post- and pre-construction grant work), Takeuchi Opuna said DPP currently operates the post-construction grant review with limited staff and that pre-construction grant processing would require additional capacity and expertise.

After the extended question-and-answer period and with no objections, the chair recommended and the committee ordered that Resolution 25-019 (confirmation of the nominee) be reported out for adoption.

The committee did not take a roll-call vote in open session on the nomination during the meeting; the record shows the committee moved the nomination forward without recorded objections. The director-designate committed to providing follow-up data on vacancies, enforcement actions and timelines.