The prescreen process began to back up when HNL Build first launched in early August, due to staff adjustment to the new system, DPP officials say.
DPP said its building permit counter will be closed for front-counter services and phone calls only. Not all work will pause, however.
The counter’s closure, which began Monday on the first floor of the Frank Fasi Building’s one-stop permit center at 650 S. King St., still allows for the pickup and drop-off of documents, DPP said.
“To address the backlog we simply closed down our building permit front counter for five days … so staff can dedicate more time and attention to prescreen reviews,” DPP spokesperson Davis Pitner said. “By eliminating the prescreen backlog, we can more quickly perform prescreen reviews, and hand them off for code review within the building permit process.”
“To be clear, this shutdown is specific only to the front counter of our building permit intake, not to any other services or work performed by DPP,” Pitner said. “All other customer services on the first floor of FMB, including Storm Water, Civil Engineering, and Commercial Codes remain open and operational, as well as the FMB first floor Data Access and Imaging Branch.”
The public still can apply for all permits online, and reviews will continue. For questions, the public can email eplans @honolulu.gov and hnlbuild @honolulu.gov. DPP said it also will have a temporary drop-box area for the public to submit payments and required documents for building permit issuance.
Pitner said the main reasons for the shutdown “are simply to eliminate the backlog that is impeding building permit reviews as the preliminary review of a building permit application, to prepare for the launch of the CivCheck” artificial intelligence software, “which we’ve planned to begin for a limited ‘first look’ applicant group in December.”
According to DPP, CivCheck will reduce plan review time by over 70%.
“This AI software provides a guided review of plan and document submittals for compliance with applicable code regulations, local permitting requirements, and required submittals, that assists applicants in creating more compliant and complete building permit applications, which will require less review time, and review cycles,” Pitner said.
On Aug. 4, DPP officially activated its new permitting software, HNL Build, to streamline the city’s site development, zoning and planning applications. The new system replaced the decades-old POSSE platform.
HNL Build, however, suffered technical glitches immediately.
Among the early critics, a group of solar-industry contractors did not receive city-issued solar permits as quickly as they would have liked or expected of a new system meant to speed up DPP’s ability to process permits.
Historically, building permit applications to DPP—largely for residential and commercial projects—have taken up to a year or longer to process and obtain.
“The launch of the City and County of Honolulu’s new permitting software, HNL Build, unfortunately has added to these challenges,” Hawaii Solar Energy Association board members wrote in an “Island Voices” column Aug. 24 in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.
“Despite positive actions and prompt attention from the mayor’s team, permit processing in the City and County of Honolulu has moved backwards at the worst possible time,” the group asserted. “Further bold and immediate actions are necessary to allow thousands of families to reduce their energy costs before the end of 2025.”
In response to criticism of HNL Build’s rollout, DPP Director Dawn Takeuchi Apuna said in August that her department was still tweaking the new system.
She cited “some data-mapping issues” transferring data from the existing POSSE system to HNL Build, “which is understandable to the extent that the data is currently managed and structured in a very old system, over to a new, more streamlined system.”
“Also, registration of new HNL Build accounts that bring over existing POSSE accounts and permits has required individual attention.”
These issues were expected, Takeuchi Apuna said previously.
But nearly four months after the rollout of HNL Build, delays persist.
“We currently have 830 projects in prescreen, which puts us at about one month and two weeks behind,” Pitner said. “Prior to the HNL Build rollout, we were closer to one to five days prescreen turnaround, which we should get back to as a result of the building permit counter closure.”
DPP selected Clariti Enterprises and Speridian Technologies in December 2023, and began implementation of the software in March 2024. The department tapped about $5.4 million from the city’s Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds program to cover the HNL Build project.
DPP’s contract with Speridian, an IT services company, includes the development, implementation and three years of software licensing for the new system, the city asserts.
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