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About a dozen Maui architects are developing home building plans that, if approved by the county, could be donated to Lahaina homeowners, speeding up the permitting process by months and saving them thousands of dollars.
The county is working to use a third-party vendor to open a special permit office for the Lahaina property to help understaffed county departments handle the increased workload. Using pre-approved building plans will reduce the time required for vendors and county staff to review permits.
“If you’re building a community and you have five different models of homes, you only have to send it in once and get an approved design registration number, rather than allowing each model 50 or 75 times,” said David Sellers. “President of the American Institute of Architects in Maui.
The sellers plan to present samples of potential plans before the County Council’s Housing and Land Use Committee on Wednesday and discuss the pros and cons of using them.
One of the architects who provided the design was Jeremy Stoddard, whose Lahaina home suffered fire but survived the Aug. 8 blaze. However, some of his friends and family members did not have one in their homes.
“They came to us very quickly to discuss reconstruction,” he said. “We think about how to create options for people because designing a custom home is not only a slow process, it’s an expensive process.”
At the County Council meeting, Sellers is expected to present several plans from Stoddard’s Pili Design Build in Wailuku. They range from 500-square-foot accessory dwelling units to two-story, four-bedroom homes called “Pueos.” It features paired gabled peaks and unique perched balconies that reminded the design team of the Hawaiian short-eared owl.
Another architect designed a 200-square-foot unit with a porch made of Trex, a wood alternative made primarily from recycled materials.
Architects reviewed the size of the burned land, with a primary range of 6,000 to 10,000 square feet. Houses are designed to fit into most of these plots.
Even with pre-approved plans, homeowners face many obstacles during the rebuilding process. Many of the homes that burned were substandard structures that did not comply with regulations, including collapse. It’s unclear what the county will do with the buildings.
There is also the question of how close to the ocean people are rebuilding their homes. Many businesses along Front Street hang over the shoreline, and many of the burned homes were too close to the shore, where state law requires that all lots bordering the shoreline have at least a 40-foot setback.
“If you’re going to fight for resilience, you have to look at all of these things carefully,” Stoddard said.
The county is also considering building code changes to address safety and resiliency concerns and is weighing whether it needs to widen or modify streets built during the plantation era that are too narrow by today’s safety standards.
For all these reasons, architects say some owners will have to wait and see how these issues are resolved before finalizing designs and moving forward with permits.
solve shortage problem
In addition to developing plans for donated homes to homeowners in fire areas, the Maui American Institute of Architects has proposed forming a “Design Assistance Team” to help communities outline their aspirations for rebuilding.
“We can act as a middleman between the community and the county,” Sellers said. “We understand the rules and nuances that are quite complex.”
Sellers said he expects there will be a lot of dialogue in the community about how to make progress in sensitive areas and what can be done to mitigate climate change.
“They may not be important now, but in 30 to 40 years they will be very important,” he said.
Having a range of pre-approved plans for homeowners to choose from will also help reduce the workload of architects who are in short supply. Sellers said there are only about 65 architects on the island, many of whom are approaching retirement and too few to replace them.
Stoddard said the custom design timeline for Maui architects now takes about three to five months. After that it can take four months or more to get a complete design.
“That’s before you start talking about licensing time,” he said.
One disadvantage of using pre-approved plans is that the design cannot be changed, although there is some flexibility in the materials used.
If the county moves forward with the pre-approved plan, homeowners would still have to overcome some hurdles, including an on-site review of the planned building footprint on the property.
Donated pre-approved plans can save homeowners anywhere from $15,000 to more than $50,000 in design and permitting fees. Stoddard said his company may charge a small fee to conduct individual site reviews if a large number of homeowners decide to use its program.
In portions of Lahaina close to the shoreline, all designs require a special management area permit.
The architects developed plans for several accessory dwelling units that could serve as small residences for a few people until the main residence is built. They can also be built outside the main house for additional living.
Like Maui, Los Angeles responded to its own housing crisis by changing its zoning laws to allow more accessory dwelling units. The state of California has created a website that contains a library of ADUs from the Architect’s Donation Program that people can browse.
Sellers said if the community says it would be helpful, the Maui AIA will create a repository of all donated registered designs and place it on its website.
Civil Beat’s reporting on Maui County is funded in part by the Nuestro Futuro Foundation.
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