More than a year after the Honolulu City Council created a program to reduce the city’s backlog of building permit applications, the city’s permitting department director said she’s close to starting the program.
The delay, said Department of Planning and Permitting Director Dawn Takeuchi Apuna, stems from the same problem that has bogged down some permit applications for over a year: staffing shortages.
That backlog has real effects in a city that desperately needs more housing. The city’s lengthy approval process not only delays construction, it makes it harder to get financing…