What can we do to address Hawaii's housing crisis?

from Grassroot Institute

M. Nolan Gray has floated the provocative idea that we need to drastically reform or even abolish zoning laws — and in February he will be in Hawaii to elaborate on his views at two events sponsored by the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii.

Gray's credentials include being a former city planner for New York City; research director of the housing advocacy group California YIMBY; a doctoral student in urban planning at the University of California, Los Angeles; and author of the new book “Arbitrary Lines: How Zoning Broke the American City and How to Fix It.”

Gray's first presentation will be on Oahu on Wednesday, Feb. 15, at the University of Hawaii at Manoa's William S. Richardson School of Law, Classroom 3, from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Admission is free and paid parking is available in the law school lot or the main UH parking structure.

His second presentation will be on Maui on Thursday, Feb. 16, at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center in Kahului, from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Admission is $10 and includes parking and lunch. 

Keli‘i Akina, Grassroot Institute president and CEO, will moderate both events, each of which will include a Q&A session.

Gray's ideas are not as extreme as they might sound. The idea of significantly reforming reforming zoning laws has caught on nationwide.
In Congress, U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii — as chairman of the Senate Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations Subcommittee — recently led a successful effort to fund a new $85 million grant program aimed at zoning reform.

Echoing recommendations made by the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii, Schatz's measure seeks to increase housing density; reduce minimum lot size; streamline or shorten permitting processes and timelines; expand by-right multifamily zoned areas; allow mixed use and multifamily development in retail, office and light manufacturing areas; and much more. 

Learn more about the growing efforts to scale back zoning at either or both of the Grassroot Institute events featuring Nolan Gray.

To register for the Oahu event, go >>>HERE<<<; for the Maui event, >>>HERE<<<.