Consultants for the 11,750-home Ho’opili community proposed on prime Ewa farmland told the state Land Use Commission Thursday that the project is necessary to avoid a severe housing shortage and won’t endanger local food security.

Two consultants for Ho’opili developer D.R. Horton’s Schuler Division testified as expert witnesses before the commission as part of a hearing continued from last month.

Project opponents challenged many assertions by Schuler’s consultants, though the cross examination was cut short after the hearing dragged on for eight hours, including three hours of public testimony before expert witnesses were heard. The hearing is scheduled to resume this morning.

Ann Bouslog, a local real estate market analyst, projected that Oahu is looking at a shortage of 29,000 homes for residents by 2030 based on city and state population growth projections even if all homes already permitted in the Ewa region plus another roughy 10,000 homes in Honolulu’s urban core are built.

Bouslog, president and CEO of Mikiko Corp., said such a shortage will force home prices up and that Ho’opili would help minimize that.

"Ho’opili is not the whole solution, but it could be part of the solution," she said.

Ho’opili opponents have suggested that more housing supply can come from building condominium towers to new heights in Kakaako and other urban areas, though Bouslog said she doubts high-rise developers will be able to keep pace with demand.

Another Schuler consultant, local agricultural economics analyst Bruce Plasch, testified that developing Ho’opili over Schuler’s estimated 20-year timetable will not reduce farm productivity on Oahu because other good land is available and other techniques such as hydroponics can expand production using far less land.

Four farms operate on the Ho’opili site, the biggest of which is Aloun Farms using about 1,000 acres to grow mainly vegetables and mellons.

Plasch said Hawaii island farm Hamakua Springs uses hydroponics to produce seven times the tomato yield of field farming. He said one tomato producer in California has a yield 50 times higher than Hawaii field farming.

"Land is not the limiting factor to the growth of diversified agriculture," he said.

Even if farmers want to relocate from the Ho’opili site, Plasch said, 30,000 acres of good quality farmland is available on Oahu, much of it between Wahiawa and the North Shore.

Ho’opili opponent Kioni Dudley of the group Friends of Makakilo suggested that a lot of fallow farmland on Oahu is fallow because it lacks a suitable water supply.

Plasch acknowledged that some fallow land would need costly water infrastructure improvements to be used, but said such improvements can be made over the next two decades as farms on the Ho’opili site are edged out.

As is allowed before a LUC hearing resumes after a long break, public testimony was welcomed before witnesses testified. About 25 people spent three hours sharing their views on Ho’opili, with supporters and opponents about evenly split over the importance of accommodating population growth and creating jobs vs. preserving farmland and not adding to traffic congestion.

Roger Rivera, a lifelong Leeward Oahu resident, said he welcomed housing that would be provided by Ho’opili. "It could be for me, and is definitely for the next generation," he said.

Some 30 percent of Ho’opili homes would be available at prices affordable to moderate income residents under city guidelines.

Harmony Bentosino of Makakilo said protecting farmland is more important than building homes. "This is some of the most fertile, productive land we have," she said. "It’s important not to sacrifice this for houses."

Ho’opili is an estimated $4.6 billion project that besides homes would include five public schools and 3 million to 4 million square feet of commercial space.

The developer projects that 7,000 permanent jobs would be created in the community, though the Sierra Club Hawaii Chapter, another organization contesting the project, pointed out Thursday that Bouslog’s analysis showed that most of those jobs would be relocating from other places and that only 680 would be net new direct jobs.

Schuler, a local division of Texas-based Horton, contends that Ho’opili is appropriate for the site because the land is within an urban growth boundary set by the city to accommodate population growth and protect farmland elsewhere from development.

Schuler officials also say that Ho’opili would be the final piece of the decades-old vision for creating a "Second City" on Oahu, and would be near three ongoing development projects — the University of Hawaii-West Oahu, Salvation Army’s Kroc Center and a Department of Hawaiian Home Lands subdivision. The site is also along the city’s planned rail line.

The developer tried to win LUC approval for Ho’opili in 2009, but was derailed that year after the commission ruled that Schuler didn’t adequately split the project into phases.

In May, Schuler revised its plan, designating 251 acres for commercial farming, community gardens and home gardens. It could be six months or more before LUC hearings on the project conclude.