When it comes to rail transit-oriented development, Kalihi community members can see the future news headlines already.

» "Kalihi becomes Honolulu’s most livable community" or

» "Kalihi: The real second city"

Those were two of the headlines envisioned as part of a group exercise at Monday night’s transit-oriented development workshop for the Kalihi area.

The workshop was structured to break up the dozens of residents who showed up into smaller groups to encourage more input.

"Not everybody’s comfortable speaking in front of a large group, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have an opinion," said Jiro Sumada, deputy director for the city Department of Planning and Permitting. "That’s the deal, to have this cross-dialogue so people’s ideas can get refined as they hear other people’s opinions, and you create this collective community input."

Residents also placed Post-It notes around three proposed Kalihi area stations, asking for infrastructure projects, including improved street lighting, connecting bike and pedestrian paths, and reducing homelessness.

"The design of these neighborhoods has to be done on a pedestrian scale," said Rajeev Bhatia, principal of the development consulting firm Dyett & Bhatia, who is drafting the development plans for the Kalihi and downtown areas.

Of the three planned stations, the Kapalama area holds the most potential, according to a draft market opportunities study prepared for the city by consulting firm Keyser Marston Associates Inc.

That’s because two large landowners in the area — Kamehameha Schools and the University of Hawaii — have redevelopment plans that lend themselves to transit-oriented development.

Eric Ogata, a senior asset manager with Kamehameha Schools, attended Monday night to hear the community’s wishes for the area. He said he’s heard a desire to keep the "local" feel of the area, with more Filipino and Hawaiian eateries, while keeping retail outlets to strip centers, rather than scattering them.

"It’s all very preliminary," Ogata said, "but it helps us to guide in what we will develop. We can’t do a cookie-cutter approach to everything we do."

The Kalihi station, proposed for Dillingham Boulevard and Mokauea Street, would be challenging because the many small parcels and individual property owners in the area would make it difficult to assemble a uniform development strategy. The area is also in need of sidewalks and other pedestrian improvements.

The Kalihi area has many successful industrial businesses, meaning there is little pressure on many property owners to redevelop them in the near term, the study states.

The study recommends that the city adopt policies that will remove regulatory barriers and assist in lowering the costs of private development.