A controversial plan to build 11,750 homes on Ewa farmland was given new life Thursday as a state commission agreed to resume the case after it was stopped nearly two years ago.
What’s next?
>> Land Use Commission hearings to approve or reject Ho‘opili could take six months to a year. >> Public testimony is accepted before each LUC hearing on the case.
>> If the LUC approves Ho‘opili, city zoning approval still would be needed.
>> If all approvals are obtained without unexpected delay, initial homes could be built in 2013. |
The decision by the state Land Use Commission to go forward allows the local Schuler Division of Texas-based developer D.R. Horton to amend, and re-present, its case for the estimated $4.6 billion project called Ho‘opili.
LUC members didn’t consider whether the project on 1,554 acres should be approved, but close to 100 concerned citizens with opposing views showed up to hold signs outside the meeting and testify before commissioners.
Most of the crowd arrived before the meeting’s 9:30 a.m. start to hold signs outside the Leiopapa A Kamehameha state office tower on Beretania Street downtown, creating a scene more common during the political campaign season.
Supporters, who outnumbered opponents and were largely affiliated with construction unions, displayed signs with messages that included "Hoopili Now," "Homes for our keiki" and "Hoopili = Jobs."
Project opponents countered with signs that read "No more urban sprawl," "Save Oahu farms" and "12,500 homes = 30,000 cars."
The demonstration on a day when no merits of the Ho‘opili project were considered was a reminder of the controversial nature of the plan, which would create a community with roughly as many homes as Mililani or Hawaii Kai on a big chunk of Oahu’s most productive and actively farmed land.
The developer has emphasized that the site roughly bordered by the H-1 freeway, Ewa Villages, Fort Weaver Road and Kualakahi Parkway has long been within the urban growth boundary designated by the city to accommodate population growth and protect farmland elsewhere on Oahu from development.
Schuler officials also call Ho‘opili the final piece of the decades-old vision for Oahu’s "Second City," and say the project envisioned with two rail stations and businesses employing 7,000 people would expand opportunities for people living in Leeward Oahu to work close to where they live and not commute downtown.
Detractors have raised concerns about Ho‘opili worsening traffic and paving over land once used to grow sugar cane and now leased to truck crops and seed corn farmers, including Aloun Farms.
Schuler originally submitted its Ho‘opili land-use petition to the LUC in 2007. Over many months the commission heard expert witnesses and extensive public testimony that included support from leaders of three neighborhood boards closest to the project site, the Hawaii Farm Bureau Federation and neighboring developers such as the state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands and the University of Hawaii-West Oahu.
Community organization Friends of Makakilo, led by Kioni Dudley, challenged Ho‘opili with expert testimony before the commission, while the state Agriculture and Transportation departments raised concerns.
In August 2009 the commission, in a 5-3 vote, deemed Schuler’s original petition deficient because it didn’t adequately split the project into phases.
No decision was made on the merits of whether the site should be urbanized.
On Thursday there was some debate and testimony about whether Schuler should be allowed to proceed after adding project phasing to its petition.
Donna Wong, executive director of Hawaii’s Thousand Friends, argued against resuming the case on grounds the phasing information was inadequate.
Kika Bukoski, a representative of the Hawaii Building and Construction Trades Council, said the merits of the case should be decided. "If the petition is not discussed and allowed to move forward, it would be a travesty to open debates and transparency," he said.
LUC members voted 9-0 to allow the case to resume.
The commission is expected to allow a more or less entirely new presentation of the case, with opportunities for public testimony and consideration of new elements Schuler recently added to the Ho‘opili master plan.
In May, Schuler announced changes including a 5-megawatt solar power plant, and 251 acres within the community for commercial farming, community gardens and home gardens.
Another recent twist is interest from the Sierra Club’s Oahu Chapter and state Sen. Clayton Hee to contest Ho‘opili before the LUC with the power to introduce expert witness testimony.
Hearings on the case are expected to start this fall.
