Every Year, Growing Honolulu Permitting Backlog Puts More And More City Revenue Out Of Reach

As Honolulu continues to receive more permit applications than it can issue, it is pushing an increasing number of plans to the following year. Those delays mean the county can't immediately collect millions of dollars in building permit fees nor impose increased property taxes on hundreds of millions of dollars in development. Revenues that are collected later can't be spent on the county's priorities today.

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Note: Total permits issued includes applications received in prior years. Methodology: Estimated building permit fee values are based on the annual permit fee revenue for the year divided by the number of permits issued for that year. The resulting fee-per-permit average was applied to the carryover building plans. Similarly, estimated development values are based on the value of all issued permits divided by the number of issued permits. The resulting value-per-permit average was applied to the carryover building plans.