Oahu, Hawaii Shoreline Certification

[Paul Garcia]

My wife and I are moving to Oahu and have some colleagues we're working with to help build our primary residence. We currently have our eye on a tear down sitting on less than about 7,000 square feet of waterfront land. I'm curious if anyone has experience with the shoreline certification process and pulling permits to build waterfront. We would tear down and rebuild. We are familiar with many of the limitations the Honolulu Department of Planning and Permits places on such a project. We're comfortable we've come up with a workable solution that fits these limits if we can just cut through some of the red tape and compete the project in under 12 months. I'm told the certification alone can take 6 months to a year. And that's before we submit for the building permit. Anyone with experience in this process? We could try to structure an offer contingent on the certification but I don't think the sellers would be willing to wait. Instead, we may just lower our offer. Any words of wisdom or suggestions?