The following testimony was submitted by the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii for consideration by the Senate Committee on Judiciary on March 4, 2026.
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March 4, 2026, 9:40 a.m.
Hawaii State Capitol
Conference Room 016 and Videoconference
To: Senate Committee on Judiciary
Sen. Karl Rhoads, Chair
Sen. Mike Gabbard, Vice Chair
From: Grassroot Institute of Hawaii
Ted Kefalas, Director of Strategic Campaigns
RE: TESTIMONY IN SUPPORT OF SB2981 — RELATING TO LAND USE
Aloha Chair, Vice Chair and other Committee members,
The Grassroot Institute of Hawaii supports SB2981, which would prohibit off-street parking requirements for any new development in an urban district.
This bill would help reduce housing prices and remove some of the regulatory barriers to construction.
Research has shown that parking mandates increase housing costs because the costs of constructing parking garages or spaces and acquiring land for parking are passed on to homebuyers and renters.[1]
Cities that have reduced or eliminated required parking see less parking built, which frees up land for new and expanded homes and businesses.[2]
Parking mandates also have hidden costs. Space dedicated to parking cannot be used to expand housing and can make it difficult to create walkable communities.
Moreover, parking mandates can frustrate renovation and rebuilding. In many areas of the state, an old building that does not meet current parking rules cannot be retrofitted to a new use without having to purchase land to add the required parking.
A planned bowling alley on Lanai encountered this problem. In that case, construction was delayed as the owners of the lot tried to figure out how to provide more parking.[3]
In Lahaina, owners of historic-zoned buildings destroyed by the 2023 wildfires could have been required to add parking spaces as part of the rebuilding process, but the Maui County Office of Recovery issued a directive waiving those rules.[4] Paving more of Lahaina just to provide parking would have made it impossible to recreate its walkable, historic aesthetic.
The Legislature can help address the housing crisis by removing burdensome and unnecessary barriers to growth such as parking mandates. We urge you to pass SB2981.
Thank you for the opportunity to testify.
Ted Kefalas
Director of Strategic Campaigns
Grassroot Institute of Hawaii
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[1] “The Costs of Parking in Hawai‘i,” prepared by PBR & Associates for the Ulupono Initiative, August 2020, p. 3; C. J. Gabbe and Gregory Pierce, “Hidden Costs and Deadweight Losses: Bundled Parking and Residential Rents in the Metropolitan United States,” Housing Policy Debate, Vol. 27, Issue 2, Aug. 8, 2016.
[2] Abbey Seitz, Trinity Gilliam and Arjuna Heim, “Stalled: How parking mandates drive up housing costs,” Hawaiʻi Appleseed Center for Law and Economic Justice, October 2025, pp. 16-17; and Daniel Baldwin Hess and Brendan Flowers, “Developer Response to the Removal of Minimum Parking Requirements in Buffalo,” Transportation Research Journal, Volume 2677, Issue 12, May 10, 2023; C. J. Gabbe, Greogry Pierce and Gordon Clowers, “Parking policy: The effects of residential minimum parking requirements in Seattle,” Land Use Policy, Vol. 91, February 2020
[3] Ahry McGuirk, “Lanai bowling alley saga shines light on county’s cumbersome parking mandates,” The Maui News, Oct. 30, 2025.
[4] Josiah Nishita and John Smith, “Recovery Coordination Directive No. 4,” Maui Office of Recovery, Dec. 9, 2025.
