Honolulu’s housing crisis demands solutions, but Bill 53 takes us backward. While families struggle to afford rent and stay in their communities, this legislation would increase housing costs by reimposing parking mandates on affordable housing.
It threatens years of progress, forcing developers to build expensive parking instead of homes — fueling sprawl, car dependency, and displacement.
Honolulu has made historic strides in parking reform. In 2020, Ordinance 20-41, eliminated costly parking mandates for new housing and commercial development in key areas: the primary urban center, ‘Ewa development plan zones (excluding residential, agricultural, and preservation districts), areas within 0.5 miles of rail stations, and transit-oriented development districts.
That measure built on progress made by Ordinance 19-8, which waived parking mandates for affordable rental housing (“Bill 7 projects”). We cannot afford to reverse course.
It’s important to note just how prohibitively expensive parking is in Honolulu. A 2020 study from the Ulupono Initiative found that the cost to build parking in high-rise buildings (with podium-style parking) for affordable and mixed-income rentals in Honolulu’s urban core costs up to $55,000 per unit. Adjusted for inflation, this cost now exceeds $68,000 per unit…