Zoning committee advances City building-code housekeeping bill to third-reading pass-through

The Honolulu City Council Committee on Zoning on Feb. 13 amended Bill 58 (2024) to a Committee Draft 2 and reported the measure out for passage on third reading. The bill updates the City and County of Honolulu building code ordinance, primarily as a housekeeping measure to correct erroneous references to the International Building Code.

Committee Chair Tommy Waters presented a proposed CD2 of Bill 58 and said the amendments summarized on the agenda are intended to fix miscoded references in Ordinance 24-15, which adopted city amendments to the Hawaii State Building Code and the Hawaii State Residential Code. The chair said his CD2 would make technical corrections and that substantive changes proposed by Councilmember Tupola (to section 12 regarding what constitutes a substantial change to approved construction documents) should be considered in a separate bill.

Dawn Takeuchi Apuna, director-designate of the Department of Planning and Permitting, told the committee the administration supports the draft CD2 and prefers substantive policy changes be handled in separate legislation. The chair recommended amending the posted CD1 to CD2 and then recommended the committee report Bill 58 CD2 out for passage on third reading. With no objections, the committee ordered the amendment and the bill was reported out.

No remote or in-person public testimony was offered at the meeting on this bill. The committee’s action moves the city’s housekeeping corrections forward while preserving the opportunity for broader policy debate on construction-document resubmittal standards and other substantive code changes.