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A proposed 41-story condominium tower in the Keeaumoku area is being held up because plans call for those living in the building’s affordable rental units to use a separate entrance from residents in market-priced units. Read more

A proposed 41-story condominium tower in the Keeaumoku area is being held up because plans call for those living in the building’s affordable rental units to use a separate entrance from residents in market-priced units.

City Council Resolution 17-333 would grant ProsPac Holdings Group LLC the authority to build the tower higher and at a greater density than is now allowed. ProsPac wants to put 425 units atop a two-story commercial plaza at Keeaumoku and Makaloa streets.

The resolution would allow ProsPac to build up to 400 feet, instead of 250 feet, because it is near a planned rail station. It would also allow building square footage that’s four times what is currently allowed for the lot size.

The plan calls for 78 “affordable units” in the tower marketed as rentals to those making no more than 80 percent of Oahu’s median income. Those affordable units would be accessed through an entrance along Makaloa, while the entrance for the market-priced units would be along Keeaumoku, a proposal that’s raising objections in the community.

Additionally, amenities — such as a pool deck, cabanas, a fitness center, theater and dog park — would only be available to those in the market units.

A family of four making 80 percent of median income earns $83,700. For a couple it’s $67,000, and a single person it’s $58,600.

Council Zoning Chairwoman Kymberly Pine on Monday pulled the resolution off of Tuesday’s Zoning and Housing Committee agenda. Pine said the decision was arrived at mutually with ProsPac to allow the developer time to speak with those concerned about the separate entrances.

William Chen, ProsPac assistant director, said in an email the original plans called for market rate and affordable for-sale units to have one entrance.

That changed after the affordable units were changed to rentals, Chen said. Rental, for-sale and commercial components “each have very different operational needs, and once built, will each be operated by separate management entities,” he said.

Buildings with so-called “poor doors” have sparked outcry in other major cities, including London, New York and Washington, D.C. Critics see separate entrances based on income as a form of segregation.

A June 2015 New York Post story described how New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio inserted language into a bill in the New York Legislature that bars developers receiving tax breaks from putting up separate entrances for affordable units.

Victor Geminiani, co-executive director for the Hawaii Appleseed Center for Law and Economic Justice, said he supports the project but not the separate entrances.

Geminiani said the project provides more affordable housing units than two other recently approved towers in the area and is the only one of the three seeking to fulfill its affordable housing obligation by building affordable units on-site.

“It also provides mixed-income residences. … It’s very seldom you see that,” Geminiani said. “All of the research indicates that that’s the best way to go” because it allows people of all incomes access to the same opportunities within the same neighborhood, he said.

“Our only reservation is that we believe the project could be improved significantly if it had one entrance for both the rentals as well as the owner-occupied units,” Geminiani said, adding that it “sends out the wrong signals.”

Geminiani said he is less concerned about the buyer-only amenities such as the pool deck, theater and fitness room, because the costs associated with those features would be passed on to those who use them through maintenance fees.

But Councilman Brandon Elefante, who sits on the Zoning Committee, said he’s bothered by the separate entrances and market-­priced unit owner-only amenities.

“Everyone should be entitled, and have the same opportunity to enter through the same front door,” Elefante said.

Likewise, he said, all residents of the building should have “fair share access” to other amenities. Elefante said he’d be open to the idea of giving affordable-rental tenants the opportunity to use the other amenities through some sort of fee or membership.

Chen, when asked about fees or memberships, said “ProsPac is open to considering a range of programmatic scenarios so long as they are operationally feasible and in the best interest of the tenants.”

Pine said while she’d like the separate entryway issue to be resolved, the priority is for the city to provide affordable housing opportunities when possible. She praised ProsPac for agreeing to create units for people making 80 percent median income while others are being allowed to build for those in the 120 percent level.

People in desperate need of housing “want a door that they can close behind them that has a roof over it and a place for them to sleep,” she said.

“But if it’s as simple as coming up with a solution such as knocking down a wall and everyone being OK with it, then we can move forward,” Pine said.