Keep Malaekahana country

If "Keep the Country Country" is to be more than a mere slogan, more than a wistful aspiration expressed by the popular bumper stickers, Oahu’s elected officials must be prepared to make very tough decisions about development, decisions that may dismay as many voters as they delight.

Such a turning point awaits the Honolulu City Council’s Zoning and Planning Committee, which on March 5 is scheduled to consider Bill 47, which would either allow or prevent major development on Malaekahana ranch land near Laie — depending on which version of the bill prevails.

The original version of the 2013 bill calls for Council members to accept a revised version of the Ko‘olau Loa Sustainable Communities Plan (KLSCP) that incorporates the controversial "Envision Laie" development plan into the document.

Perhaps the most contentious element of Envision Laie is the proposed residential and commercial development on the 300-acre Malaekahana parcel, which is outside the region’s urban growth boundary and now zoned for agricultural use.

Committee Chairman Ikaika Anderson has proposed amendments to Bill 47 striking all references to the Malaekahana parcel from the KLSCP, and eliminating the associated expansion of the urban growth boundary.

The amendments do not deter proposals for growth in Kahuku and Laie.

Anderson’s proposed compromise is the one the committee should approve, even though continuing to restrict development in Malaekahana admittedly will make it more challenging for Hawaii Reserves, Inc., to meet its important goals of providing more affordable housing for Laie-area residents who have made their home in the region for generations.

Hawaii Reserves manages properties affiliated with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which include Brigham Young University-Hawaii and the Polynesian Cultural Center, both located in Laie. The college and the tourist attraction are major employers for area residents, who adopted the "live, work, play" ethos long before it became the mantra of Oahu planning.

Lately, though, it has been much harder, if not outright impossible, to achieve that balance, as housing prices skyrocket. Many Laie families live with multiple generations under one roof, to meet the monthly expenses and keep all members of extended ohana housed.

Hawaii Reserves insists that opening up the mauka Malaekahana parcel for development is the most feasible path to housing that is truly affordable for the longtime residents who live and work in Laie — regular people such as teachers, police officers and PCC and BYUH employees.

The company says the land is more suitable for rapid construction than other steep, flood-prone parcels it owns within the existing urban growth boundary, including some land downwind from a sewage treatment plant.

But critics — and there are many, including numerous neighborhood boards and community associations on Oahu that object to the development aims of Envision Laie and to the process by which those aims were added to the KLSCP — insist that Hawaii Reserves has not fully realized approvals it already holds for residential and commercial development within existing boundaries. Those voices are persuasive.

Laie is but one part of Windward Oahu’s coast, and what happens there affects a far larger population that deserves to be heard. Increased traffic, the potential expansion of Kamehameha Highway that could claim private property and a decline in the area’s rural character all are predictable outcomes if this Malaekahana development moves forward.

Even more broadly, the project flies in the face of recent progress to preserve the natural environment of Oahu’s remote Windward and North Shore coasts. Reducing expansion plans at Turtle Bay Resort and conserving Kawela Bay were steps in the right direction. Expanding urban boundaries near Laie to build homes and businesses on undeveloped land zoned for agriculture goes the wrong way.

Anderson’s amendments to Bill 47 represent a compromise that keeps Laie-area development where it belongs.