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DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARADVERTISER.COM
Using a traditional Hawaiian grandbreaking stick, or o’o stick, Dennis Lombardi, left, Matt Farris, Don Tomnitz, Rep. Ty Cullen, Mike Murray, Mayor Kirk Caldwell, Jim Schuler, Gov. David Ige, Bob Bruhl, Sen. Mike Gabbard, Jason Frank, Cameron Nekota and Mike Jones break ground at a blessing ceremony for the 11,750-home Ho‘opili community by developer D.R. Horton at the end of Keahumoa Parkway in Kapolei.
Real estate development firm D.R. Horton expects to have the first 293 homes begin to rise at its planned 11,750-home Ho‘opili community in November, the company said at a blessing ceremony today at the project site on Oahu’s Ewa Plain.
The first few homes are projected for delivery next summer. Some commercial space and a 1.8-acre neighborhood park with playground equipment and a gathering pavilion are also part of the initial phase of work on roughly 50 acres of the 1,554-acre Ho‘opili site.
Work on a second phase a bit more mauka next to a planned city rail station is slated to start construction next year and include more homes and commercial space.
Under an agreement with the city, 30 percent of Ho‘opili housing must be affordable to local households with low to moderate incomes. Prices for initial homes are expected to roughly range from the $300,000s to the $600,000s. Sales efforts are expected to begin early next year.
If built out as envisioned, Ho‘opili will have 11,750 homes, 3 million square feet of commercial space, five schools and 200 acres of farmland.
And E V E R Y single one of those homes is going to have at LEAST two AUTOMOBILES without even a second thought to the Rail Fail.
rail won’t matter for this development because it’s off of h2. just going to pack more cars funneling into the h1/h2 merge. 11750 homes, probably means at least 20,000 more cars on the road every day
agree..traffic nightmare
Overpopulation nightmare.
agree too. sucks. but our elected officials don’t care.
And they keep getting re-elected. So blame yourselves for voting these politicians back into office. I voted for Dudley.
Relief for generations of local families. Affordable homes.
IRT to bobbob. I think you’re confusing Hoopili with Koa Ridge. Hoopili is in Ewa, by H1. Koa Ridge will be across Waipio Gentry by the H2. Still yet, going get the bottleneck into the H1/H2 merge. Hoopili going be only 1/2 the cars now. Koa Ridge going be the other 1/2 from the other direction.
Sorry, you’re right. I was thinking of koa ridge. Thanks for the correction.
Agree traffic will get worst but people have to live somewhere. Without more housing there will be more homeless. Given the two choices I would pick traffic.
this is in kapolei..not waiawa
Prime ag land, forever gone. Nowhere in the world, can you find year round growing potential, and in this era of climate change, we will ‘die’ to regret our foolishness. God save us all. Greed is good?
Thinking the exact same thing. All this talk about Hawaii self-sustainability is pure B S when over 1500 acres of prime ag land on Oahu is destroyed.
THE END
tragic to lose the invaluable ag land needed for food security for this import-dependent island. The blazing hot, arid area will also mean lots of AC sucking electricity for the next few decades. Sad. But it is what your representatives wanted.
About the same amount of ag land will be lost when Koa Ridge is built. Might have to plant your own fruits and veggies in your back yard.
With 11,750 new homes in Hoopili, the traffic will only get worst on H-1 freeway and at the H-2 merge. People will then find the metro a quicker, safer, comfortable, inexpensive, and more convenient way of getting back and forth between the West and East sides of leeward Oahu. Metro ridership will increase proportionately as the traffic congestion, delays, accidents, and stalled cars increase.
Vector says: “With 11,750 new homes in Hoopili, the traffic will only get worst on H-1 freeway and at the H-2 merge. People will then find the metro a quicker, safer, comfortable, inexpensive, and more convenient way of getting back and forth between the West and East sides of leeward Oahu.”
1) Ho’opili never would have been approved without the rail project.
2) Rail doesn’t go past Ho’opili so if you actually live in Ewa, Waianae, or Kapolei, not only do you have the developer’s new project and 20,000 new cars sitting between you and town, but the promised rail doesn’t serve you.
Tell me again why DR Horton isn’t paying for this?
The rail doesn’t have to run by the subdivision. The buses will feed to and from the rail station with shuttles going in and out of the subdivisions. If you look at other rails systems around the world, they use buses to get people to and from the rail stations. With the rail you will not need the long express buses that currently run. The Hoopili project would have approved with rail or not. What rail does do is give people the option of riding on a train that will get them to work and back home in 40 minutes without the frustration of driving in traffic for two hours or more. By the time the rail is built with all the new cars on the road, the traffic home to the west side will probably be about 3 hours each way.
Ho’opili has a rail station in its subdivision
http://honouliuli.blogspot.com/2015/06/photos-of-Hoopili-rail-station-protests.html
I know the train goes right to Ho’opili.
When I said that rail doesn’t go past Ho’opili, I meant exactly that, rail doesn’t go past Ho’opili, it stops there and neglects Ewa, Kapolei, and Waianae.
That’s why I think the Developers should pay their share of this wholesale theft from the public and west side communities.
lol Makiki123. The total AM rail commute will not take “40 minutes” even if you live next to the Kapolei rail station and work at Aloha Tower. When I caught the Kapolei country express five years ago, it took 50 minutes TOTAL. In the summer, we got to downtown in 40 minutes. The rail leg itself will take at least 50 minutes. Add in your feeder bus travel and transfer waiting times and the rail replacement easily doubles the AM express bus commute.
I live in Mililani now and will likely have to catch a 35 minute feeder bus to get to the Waipahu rail station. Add 10 minutes in transfer time. 40 minutes to Aloha Tower. Walk 15 minutes to the building that the express bus used to drop me off right in front. Total AM rail travel time: 110 minutes. $10b for a public transit commute that will take 2x as long…only in Hawaii. For the UH students, their commute is even worse as there was a direct express bus to UH. Think of what their commute will be with rail. Now do you see why most of the current bus riders will drive instead of taking the train? Just wait and see what traffic will be like when rail is operational.
vextor – No end to your rail shibai. Failing to understand how long it will take to get from their homes to a rail station.
You keep forgetting Hawaii does not have a “Metro” and never will.
Rail ridership will decrease as required preventive maintenance is not done to standard, trains break down, grid locking the entire rail line. People will flee it in droves.
Death to our life style thanks to population growth by immigration.
Exactly you nailed it.
agree with you on this one..
“Death to our lifestyle” Our lifestyle? Privilege because you were born here? Local mentality. Now don’t move to the mainland, because you wouldn’t be welcome there. You’re entitled there only if you were born there. Does that make sense Allah? Or maybe you should move somewhere else and make room for one of the 12,000 new families moving to Oahu.
Part of IGE’s plan to increase farming – by building houses on prime AG land.
With more affordable homes being built on the west side traffic congestion will continue to increase. We need to keep adding housing to accommodate our growing population and space is only available on the west side. Rail will provide the needed additional transportation capacity as well as being a less hassle alternative to driving.
Yeah? Hope they’ll figure out a way to power the thing. No less pay for it. lol
The cap for adding excess residential solar power to the grid will shortly be reached. The Navy is building a huge thousand acre solar panel farm on the west side. Another solar farm in Waipio/ Mililani now in operation. Another large solar farm north of the Koa Ridge Project in Waipio is in the works. More wind turbine farms are also being built in Kahuku and north of Haleiwa. HECO aims to have Oahu 100% on renewable, non polluting sources of energy by 2045. Wind turbines on the ocean off of Oahu have also been proposed. The renewable energy sources will be cheaper than fossil fuels, and will power the rail metro. The metro will be non-polluting, and not contribute to global warming and climate change.
Just to be clear, you are saying that the they turn this train on, it will be running on extra solar capacity? What about at night or when it’s overcast?
You read the taxpayer funded comic book, right?
And 2045 for 100% renewable energy is one of those “way off in the future” dates chosen for everyone who voted for it is dead or retired.
“Growing population” is the cause of the desaster. Stop immigration and outlaw more than 2 kids per couple.
The only way Hawaii can control immigration of people from COFA and mainland states is by restoring our independent nation status.
As a colonized state within the USA empire, we will continued to be overrun and despoiled until we are so pilau that no one wants to live here anymore. Only then would immigration from USA and COFA stop.
Hawaii has two paths. I support decolonization and independence.
Affordable? $300,000 for a townhome, $600,000 for a small 2 room zero lot home is hardly affordable.
Gonna suck to live on the Leeward/Central areas. Good luck!
Gonna suck to live on this whole darn planet thanks to the darn people irresponsibly multiplying like lemmings.
Nah…the educated and wealthy have few offspring. It’s the meth heads, uneducated, inbred, more tats than teeth types that breed like feral cats
What is funny as I read these comments…the “meth heads, uneducated, inbred, more tats than teeth types that breed like feral cats” seem to be living life more happily than some of the posters on this forum lol.
Yeah.hajaa1,hahahaaha. Lol. Tats and teeth.
Another bedroom development to generate more commuter traffic – just what we need in Hawaii! How about we build some homes next to major employers for true sustainability where people can live close to where they currently work?
You mean like a… second city? 🙂 They already played that card.
City of Honolulu and State of Hawaii cannot afford to have duplicate services both in West Oahu and Honolulu. Unions would love it because you would have to hire almost double the union City and State workers but no way can can that be sustained.
You mean cayetano’s Second City?
Any simpleton knows the west side was sold out to developers without being taken into consideration anyone of its citizens’ comforts and well beings! Money talks and the land designed for crucifixion enabled the Judas Icariots of the world for unlimited monetary compensations. The root of all evils is what this is all about! The average citizens in West Oahu have been sold a bill of worthless counterfeits! Homes costing beyond their means, gridlock traffics, outdated rail, plus stress and heartaches!
And you thought traffic was bad now! hahahahaha, keep building with NO NEW ROADS OR FREEWAYS. enjoy 🙂
60 to 90 minutes from town to Aiea not long enough for the city, let shoot for 90 to 120 so Kirk has more tax money to spend to get reelected.
Cayetano should have thought about 2nd City traffic back in the 90’$.
This development will saturate the freeway with more vehicles and create a parking lot. It surely will add more travel time for motorist. Is this the quality of life that we would want for our future generation? These thirteen officials that are tossing dirt could careless about how this development will cause such an overwhelming traffic congestion for motorists. It’s all about $$$$$$$ and the heck with the taxpayers.
The buyers of these new homes will not be tax payers?? Why do posters assume these new home owners will not pay tax??? Are you tea party?? Huh? Most complainers of “my tax dollars” are usually minimum contributors over 60 gang. If fact they pay no taxes.
My cousin’s brother’s uncle who lives in Honolulu encourages developers to keep building houses on the Leeward side. His property values have skyrocketed since the commute from his residence to work in the heart of Honolulu is quite short. By adding more cars to the mix on the Leeward side, traffic will only get worse and more people will be wishing they could live closer to town. Residences in Honolulu become even more valuable.
Heck…soon Pearl City and Aiea will be “town”
Agree!
Once again the Governor has lied to us. Here was his plan for Agriculture….
“Agriculture is critical to self-sufficiency and food security. Instead of continuing to import 90% of our food, we need to take steps to produce more food locally. The Administration is committed to making farming and local food production a thriving industry.”
Ige Administration Agriculture Plan
– Develop a long-range plan to increase the local food production from the current 10% to at least 20% by the end of the decade. The plan will also include the identification of lands for the production of flowers and nursery products, for raising livestock, and for developing bio-fuels. This plan will be used to guide decisions for irrigation and other infrastructure.
– Provide more low-interest loans to farmers and ranchers.
– Identify and preserve up to 200,000 acres of prime agricultural land to increase food production.
– Establish agricultural parks statewide to accommodate small family farms.
– Improve the monitoring of transported agricultural goods to prevent the introduction of invasive species.
– Ensure sufficient funding for state pesticide officers who monitor, regulate, and enforce the use of restricted-use pesticides in order to protect the health and welfare of our residents.
– Work with our Congressional delegation to enact a federal law to require GMO labeling. The public has the right to know what they are consuming, but there is a need for consistency across states that only the federal government can ensure. A federal law will avoid hurting local farmers, food manufacturers and distributors, who would incur added costs of complying with a state labeling law. A state GMO labeling law will be supported only if there are no adverse economic impacts on local farmers, food manufacturers and distributors.
Mahalo Gov for all your concern!!
And, how about the head of the Water and Ag putting his o’o into this fertile ground?
Hoopii should be re-done to include primarily multi family high density apartments and condos clustered tightly along the rail line. This will give us the most homes, the most affordable homes, less land needed, so more can go back to agriculture, and maximize rail use. Those $800K single family home spreads planned will just add to traffic gridlock.
All I can say to these guys diggibg in the ground with sticks is karma’s a b#$%h.. hope you can sleep at night..