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Affordable apartments proposed in Palisades

by Bobby Command
West Hawaii Today
bcommand@westhawaiitoday.com
Friday, November 14, 2008 8:51 AM HST

A 306-unit affordable rental apartment complex is being proposed in Kona Palisades.

Being developed by Hoolehua Housing Limited Partnership, Lokahi Ka'u Affordable Apartments would be built near a number of other unrelated housing developments currently building both affordable and market-value homes.

The 30-day public comment period for the draft environmental assessment began Nov. 8, and the county expects no adverse impacts that would compel the preparation of a more in-depth and time-consuming environmental impact statement.

Lokahi Ka'u will feature 18 residential buildings, each a three-story, garden-style walk-up structure with exterior stairwells. Three buildings will contain 30 studio apartments, each 384 square feet; six buildings will have 18 one-bedroom apartments, each 640 square feet; and nine buildings will have 12 two-bedroom apartments, each 936 square feet.

There will be 460 parking stalls, including 25 that will be handicap accessible. Landscaping buffers would be provided on residential property margins and in other locations of the property to provide an attractive appearance and reduce scenic impacts to neighboring residences.

The primary objective of the project is to meet the high demand for affordable housing in West Hawaii, where no new rental projects have opened in three years. According to the environmental assessment, demand for affordable housing in 2007 within the income- and size-qualified rental households targeted by the project totaled 2,585 households. More than 150 households are added each year.

This affordable housing gap is further evidenced by the county's extensive wait list for low-income housing. The county Office of Housing and Community Development's wait list for Section 8 vouchers is now closed with 2,500 applicants, and the Hawaii Public Housing Authority's wait list at a comparable public housing project is at 500 applicants.

Although once part of a larger 50-acre parcel, Lokahi Ka'u is a stand-alone project being developed by Hoolehua Housing LP, a subsidiary of property owner and affordable housing developer Pacific Housing Advisors of Seattle. This is the company's first venture into construction in Hawaii.

Two other projects, one a single-family home development and another planned as workforce housing with mixture of single-family homes and apartments, are currently in planning to the north on Kakahiaka Street.

Financing will be -provided through the sale of affordable housing credits, federal and state tax credit proceeds, a tax-exempt $9.75 million loan from the Rental Housing Trust Fund, and a $33.5 million bond float issued through the Housing Finance and Development Corporation.

According to the executive summary, the project retains the character of this neighborhood, which includes the 1970s-era Kona Palisades subdivision, the recent Lokahi Makai subdivision near the intersection of Kakahiaka Street and Kaiminani Drive, and the new Seascape condominium project across Kakahiaka Street from Lokahi Ka'u.

The environmental assessment may be found in the online library at hawaii.gov/health/environmental/oeqc/index.html. Instructions on how to comment may be found in the current issue of The Environmental Notice, which may also be found at the same Web site.

There are 15 comment(s) comments to this story.

edlfwood wrote on Nov 21, 2008 11:53 PM:

" Should the resorts not provide some employee housing at their properties for locals only? That way everyone does not have to add to traffic and we can become green. If each resort provided 50% of their employees housing on site plus Plalisades I think it would be good. And allow dogs and cats they are Ohana too!! "