Honolulu Permit Counter Closing Next Week To Catch Up With Backlog

More than 800 projects are waiting to clear the first hurdle in the permitting process.

Honolulu’s troubled permitting department will close its front counter services next week and won’t be accepting phone calls from the public as it tries to climb its way out of a six-week backlog of applications.

In an email to staff, Director Dawn Takeuchi Apuna said the agency is experiencing a “substantial backlog” in the prescreen process, which is a first, cursory review for formatting issues. Limiting customer service functions is an effort to eliminate that backlog, she wrote.

DPP declined an interview request. In an email, department spokesman Davis Pitner said the department has 830 projects in the prescreen stage, applications that started to pile up with the August introduction of new mu