State sees high-rises jutting from skyline

When Gov. Neil Abercrombie announced plans last week for soliciting a developer to build Hawaii’s tallest building — a 650-foot residential tower that would be 50 percent higher than the current record holder in Honolulu — he was talking about just one building.

But the state agency promoting the project is proposing to raise the existing 400-foot height limit throughout a much broader area in urban Honolulu.

The Hawaii Community Development Authority, which governs development in Kakaako, is working to draft new development rules with the 650-foot limit for land around two planned rail stations in Kakaako and possibly a third station site near Aloha Tower on the edge of downtown Hono­lulu.

If approved, potentially many buildings could soar to 650 feet and dramatically redraw Honolulu’s skyline.

The notion is a concern for some environmental-protection groups that have long fought to preserve view planes and open space.

“We need to protect the incredible visual resources of our state,” said Bob Loy, director of environmental programs for the Outdoor Circle. “Six hundred fifty feet is humongous. It would become the focal point just from about any vista and from miles and miles away — from the sea and air. It would dwarf everything — the Koolaus and Diamond Head. It would make Aloha Tower look like a church steeple.”

Loy said he’s not opposed to high-density urban development or housing in Kakaako, but he believes adding 250 feet to the area’s present height limit isn’t appropriate.

Some members of the Sierra Club also are concerned by the proposed rule change. Robert Harris, executive director of the group’s Hawaii chapter, said the Sierra Club supports high-density transit-oriented development as a smart-growth principal but doesn’t have enough details about HCDA’s plan to form a position on whether a 650-foot height limit around Kakaako rail stations is acceptable.

Anthony Ching, HCDA executive director, said the increased height limit is being proposed as a way to create more affordable housing while also concentrating homes in close proximity to mass-transit stations and reducing residents’ dependence on cars.

Developers in Kakaako now must provide 20 percent of housing units in residential towers at moderate prices under HCDA rules. With buildings rising to

650 feet, the cost per unit would come down, making it easier for developers to make more than 20 percent of units available at affordable prices, Ching said.

In the project announced by Abercrombie, almost

40 percent of units, or 300 of 800, would be affordable. The project is on state land next to Mother Waldron Park and is envisioned to include a 650-foot tower with 500 market-priced units next to a smaller tower with 300 units of affordable housing priced at about $350,000 per unit.

Ching said a new affordable-housing requirement would be tied to a new height limit in transit-oriented development rules.

A boundary determining how far a 650-foot height limit would extend around the stations has not been determined. Transit-oriented development typically is a quarter-mile or a half-mile around stations.

A quarter-mile radius would reach property fronting Ala Moana Boulevard, where the HCDA reduced height limits as low as 100 feet earlier this year.

Ching said HCDA should have an outline of the rules by January. He also said an environmental impact statement would be prepared to assess effects on such things as view planes, traffic, sewer capacity and Federal Aviation Administration flight paths.

Public hearings before the HCDA board also are

required before agency directors are asked to approve new rules with an increased height limit.

Ching said the agency expects to issue a request for proposals in January to develop the state site next to Mother Waldron Park. Developers will be asked to submit plans for the project dubbed 690 Pohukaina with a tower up to 650 feet. However, approval for 690 Pohukaina can’t be given unless rules are amended to allow buildings that high.

Abercrombie has in the past advocated abolishing HCDA, and derided high-rise condos in Kakaako as “kennels for the rich.” But as governor Abercrombie is advocating work-force housing and transit-oriented development.

“We cannot continue on a path of urban sprawl,” he said in a statement. “690 Pohukaina will offer increased value because of its height and density as well as the mixed-use approach that takes advantage of its location. This project is about enhancing the way we live. Sustainable urban density is the future.”

If a 650-foot height limit is approved, other projects besides 690 Pohukaina could benefit — none more so than Kakaako’s two biggest private landowners: Kamehameha Schools and Howard Hughes Corp.

The two landowners have approved master plans allowing development of up to 6,750 residential units largely around the two Kakaako transit station sites.

Kamehameha Schools intends to build up to 2,750 homes in seven towers spread over 29 acres. Hughes Corp. owns 60 acres at Ward Centers and has an approved plan allowing up to 4,000 units in as many as 20 towers.

Kamehameha Schools did not respond to a request for comment Friday on the proposed 650-foot height limit.

David Striph, senior vice president leading operations in Hawaii for Texas-based Hughes Corp., said he doesn’t know enough about how HCDA might change its rules to comment. Hughes Corp. is still studying the Ward Centers master plan, which it acquired last year when it bought Ward Centers from mall owner General Growth Properties.

Hughes Corp. and Kamehameha Schools can build up to 400 feet under approvals granted by HCDA in 2009. The approvals are valid until 2024, after which any development would have to conform to rules in effect at the time.

However, the two landowners could seek to have their development plans revised so they could build 650 feet high if such a limit were approved.