Oahu’s tension between development and agriculture is perhaps most profound in the Ewa area, which for decades has been designated as one of the island’s two main regions for major urban growth — Honolulu city is the other — after the decline of plantation farming out west.

The Ewa Development Plan (DP) was devised to outline the city’s policy for growth in this district; it is one of eight Oahu subdivided regions, each with its own development plan or sustainable communities plan to help guide the area’s unique visions for growth.

Key in these plans is community input that helps shape these guidelines, which are supposed to be reviewed and evolved every five years by the city. Unfortunately, the bureaucrats have fallen short on this — and in the case of the Ewa Development Plan review, it’s been 13 years. Now, finally, the City Council has before it a proposed revision, which should be briskly approved to bring the planning vision up to date and in sync with recent events. The Council’s Zoning and Planning Committee already has voted for approval.

The plan to urbanize more than 1,500 acres on the edge of the "Second City" has stirred some opposition because of the fertile farmland at issue — no small consideration — but urbanization makes sense as Oahu’s population grows and Honolulu’s rail project becomes reality.

At a recent hearing on the proposed Ewa DP update, opponents urged that the 11,750-home Ho‘opili master-planned project be excluded from the Ewa plan. But Ho‘opili is within the long-established urban growth boundary for the Ewa DP, part of an urbanization policy that dates back to the 1970s. Its inclusion is a key piece in the area’s important jigsaw puzzle.

Last year, the state Land Use Commission approved construction of the Ho‘opili community to be spread over 20 years. The project — which includes 251 acres of commercial farming, community gardens and home gardens — still needs assorted detailed permits, but approval of the updated Ewa DP basically provides a needed umbrella stamp-of-approval for a project long envisioned for the area.

Area residents have been overwhelmingly in favor of the development as enhancing the region between the western part of Kapolei to Ewa Beach and Waipahu. "It is a wonderful thing to see the area of the Leeward Coast being able to grow in the way that it is," Ewa Beach resident Melissa Lyman, president of the Kalaeloa Heritage and Legacy Foundation, told the Council committee. "I believe wholeheartedly that the people of the Leeward Coast will benefit with jobs."

The 20-year build-out is expected to generate 27,000 construction and development-related jobs.

Also outlined in the proposed Ewa DP update are three significant ongoing projects: the University of Hawaii-West Oahu campus, the Salvation Army Kroc Center and a Department of Hawaiian Home Lands subdivision. Together, these projects support the reality that Ho‘opili will be the final big piece and logical extension of a "Second City" on Oahu.

The importance of good planning policies cannot be overstated. Done well, they transmit to the public what government has in mind for certain parts of the island and state, and developers are made aware of the hurdles ahead. For Oahu, that’s what the development plans and sustainable communities plans outline. Key to it all, though, is the need for robust public input and timely reviews so districts can evolve well. New factors and lifestyle trends will emerge — the push for, and inclusion of, "green" energy and food sustainability are major recent ones, for example. Such things can dictate changes in details, even complexion, of a region. But it shouldn’t take 13 years before government lets neighbors weigh in on an area’s development or sustainability plan.