Building or Remodeling on Hawaiʻi Island – 2024 Update

October 2021 – Thatʻs when I had just applied for a building permit to remodel a 40-year-old home Iʻd purchased in Hawi, just after Hawaiʻi County (the Big Islandʻs) new online permitting system known by the acronym “EPIC” went live. As I reported in this October 2022 post, my small remodel permit got approved one year and 6 days after submission. That was the good news! The bad news was by then my contractor had started a big build that would occupy him for another 18 months before we could get started on my remodel this year.

My story is not unusual. But since I already have several sales of vacant land closed or in escrow this year, I have been answering these questions a lot and think itʻs time to give an update on remodeling or building time frames for Hawaiʻi Island.

Not a pretty picture, but it makes my heart sing. Turning an office and outdoor shed into a new bedroom and this attached bath at my own residential property.

How Long Does it Take to Get a Building Permit in Hawaiʻi County?

The first thing my Big Island buyers ask if they are looking at vacant land or a home they would want to remodel is how long it will take to get a building permit to get started. Luckily we no longer have the post-Covid, post-EPIC implementation backlog that I faced in late 2021. But that does not mean that your permit process will necessarily be faster.

The good news is that Hawaiʻi County passed a bill in 2023 that amended the County Code in ways intended to streamline the permitting process. The intent was to reduce processing times to under 180 days. The bill also acknowledged that owners might find themselves in the situation that I did, namely that with a limited pool of Big Island licensed contractors and subs, and a building boom, owners might be facing a wait even when they had the permit in hand. I got a notice saying that my open permit would now be valid for six years from approval, adding a year and a possible 180-day extension.

According to the County, building permit approvals currently average 90 days, but can take up to a year depending on their complexity and the completeness of the initial submission. What do they mean by complexity?

Building Permit complexity usually begins with Planning Department and State approvals before it even gets to the Building Division

I have written before about building on oceanfront parcels, and my appreciation for properties with gulches. And of course as Director of Hawaiʻii Lifeʻs Conservation and Legacy Lands practice I spend a lot of time consulting with agents and buyers about possible archeological sites on their properties, or when an environmental assessment would be required. All these are examples of factors that will add complexity to your building permit process. (These factors will also affect a subdivision or other action you might be considering for your land).

My Report Card on the EPIC Building Permit System – so far

You may be wondering if I am using a licensed contractor for my remodel, why did I apply as owner-builder in the first place? There were two reasons. The first was that I wanted to get first-hand experience with it to share with my clients, customers, neighbors – and all of you who read my articles on the Hawaiʻi Life website.

The second is that this is “not my first rodeo” when it comes to remodeling a vintage property, so I wanted to use a particular architect and contractor who I know have the experience and enthusiasm for the problem solving and creativity remodels inevitably require. Both of them are…yeah well…experienced. If I say “Old School” you might think “Old-Timers” and since my contractor is two years older than I am, what would that make me? But basically yes, they are Old School, did not mind having to deliver physical plans to the Planning Department, then once they were stamped take them on to the Building Department, and so on. Over the years, they developed relationships, brought plenty of loaves of homemade banana bread or boxes of malasadas when they needed to consult on an issue with the inspector or plumbing supervisor. They did NOT want to have anything to do with EPIC!

As real estate professionals we already have adapted to a world where documents are signed electronically and all our files are transmitted in PDF format and “filed” somewhere in the cloud. It made sense to me to work with the EPIC system, and I love the transparency of being able to see exactly where my project is in the process.

Building Permits are issued electronically but you will need to print a copy and post it in a visible spot on your job site

Now that I have had my electrical, plumbing and framing inspections, I also learned that I had to print out a copy of the Building Permit and post it visibly, and that the inpsectors would ask to see a copy of the physical plans. That one confused me as there had never been any physical plans!!! But yep, I had to print out a set of large format plans with all those electronic comments and signatures so the inspectors could check off the box that asked whether they had seen them on site. That was maybe the biggest confusion for me in the whole process.

But calling for an inspection is an easy click of the mouse in EPIC. Inspectors show up in a day or two with all the information on a tablet. And I loved that within hours of the inspection I would get an email telling me weʻd passed!

So far Iʻm giving the system a “B”. But my learning curve has been steep and Iʻm guessing the County employees were in the steep part of their learning curve at the same time I was and my next project will go even more smoothly.

I also want to mention that wastewater permits are issued by the State, not the County, so that is an entirely separate permitting process. More on my cesspool to septic conversion in the next post!