Kauai landowners might pay for more time to build

LIHUE, Kauai — Owners of nonresidential land on Kauai may get more time to build additional dwelling units on their properties.

The practice was discontinued about seven years ago. But the Garden Island reports that property owners can build if they submitted the proper forms and permit paperwork before that time.

Many proposed projects slowed when the economic recession hit in 2008. There were nearly 460 proposed but only 130 got off the ground.

“This is an opportunity for people to be able to build and keep stimulating the economy through carpenter and cement jobs,” Council Chairman Jay Furfaro said.

The deadline to finish those projects is in December, but county officials are considering giving property owners more time if they pay a $750 annual fee.

That fee would be too much to handle for some residents. They say it would hinder longstanding ambitions to build on land that has been within their families for generations.

Patricia Lyons, a 52-year-old Kapaa resident, said her father purchased land in 1967 so that family members could build an additional dwelling unit when they became older.

“I am asking on behalf of my late father, who had a dream for his children, to please extend the ADU deadline indefinitely,” Lyons said. “This will allow the dream for me, my mom and my two brothers to become a reality.”