With reservations, I do support the proposed bills (both the original and more so Tamara Paltin’s proposed version), with the following comments/suggestions for your consideration:
1) I am really concerned that both proposals will end up increasing the rental cost of these dwellings. I’m sure we can all agree that the rental rate for a larger dwelling is more then a smaller dwelling, so this proposal will not help with the big problem we now have with affordability. To help with affordability and the shortage of housing, please consider adding a 3rd farm dwelling that is limited in size to something like 500 square feet. There are many singles and couples without children that simply need a smaller more affordable place to live in the Upcountry, Haiku, and especially the Hana sides of the island where the predominant zoning is agriculture (more housing is needed for the locals, not just larger more expensive dwellings). This bill is likely to make it harder for people to find the smaller more affordable places to rent.
2) I do prefer Councilmember Tamara Paltin’s version because it both provides (1) the option for the owner to decide the size of the two farm dwellings as long as (2) both farm dwellings do no go over a maximum combined size. The existing size for both dwellings combined together of 10% of the lot size is ridiculously too big (for example, a 15 acre lot can have 56,340 square feet of dwelling area, which does not even count any of the covered decking).
3) One thing missing from this discussion is that currently there is NO LIMIT on the size of covered decking in the agriculture district (ask the Planning staff and they will confirm this). The existing 1,000 sf 2nd farm dwelling can have a 10,000 or 20,000, or 30,000 or more square feet of covered decking, right now with the current code. With creative designs, many people are already making their 1,000 square feet 2nd farm dwelling significantly bigger by adding many thousands of square feet of covered decking. Please consider adding to this bill some kind of covered decking limit, any amount that you think would be reasonable.
Mahalo
With reservations, I do support the proposed bills (both the original and more so Tamara Paltin’s proposed version), with the following comments/suggestions for your consideration:
1) I am really concerned that both proposals will end up increasing the rental cost of these dwellings. I’m sure we can all agree that the rental rate for a larger dwelling is more then a smaller dwelling, so this proposal will not help with the big problem we now have with affordability. To help with affordability and the shortage of housing, please consider adding a 3rd farm dwelling that is limited in size to something like 500 square feet. There are many singles and couples without children that simply need a smaller more affordable place to live in the Upcountry, Haiku, and especially the Hana sides of the island where the predominant zoning is agriculture (more housing is needed for the locals, not just larger more expensive dwellings). This bill is likely to make it harder for people to find the smaller more affordable places to rent.
2) I do prefer Councilmember Tamara Paltin’s version because it both provides (1) the option for the owner to decide the size of the two farm dwellings as long as (2) both farm dwellings do no go over a maximum combined size. The existing size for both dwellings combined together of 10% of the lot size is ridiculously too big (for example, a 15 acre lot can have 56,340 square feet of dwelling area, which does not even count any of the covered decking).
3) One thing missing from this discussion is that currently there is NO LIMIT on the size of covered decking in the agriculture district (ask the Planning staff and they will confirm this). The existing 1,000 sf 2nd farm dwelling can have a 10,000 or 20,000, or 30,000 or more square feet of covered decking, right now with the current code. With creative designs, many people are already making their 1,000 square feet 2nd farm dwelling significantly bigger by adding many thousands of square feet of covered decking. Please consider adding to this bill some kind of covered decking limit, any amount that you think would be reasonable.
Mahalo