The Honolulu City Council gave the go-ahead for the long-awaited update Ewa Development Plan on Wednesday but not before some three hours of heated testimony, mostly against the controversial 12,000-home Ho‘opili housing project.

Testimony ran about 4-to-1 against approving the plan, which is supposed to be a guideline designed to help with long-range planning and development for the fast-growing region from Ewa to Kapolei.

Bill 65 (2012) was passed 9-0, although Council Chairman Ernie Martin voted with reservations.

Mayor Kirk Caldwell, whose Department of Planning and Permitting has supported and help guide development of the new Ewa plan, said late Monday he likely will sign the bill.

Many opponents said Ho‘opili would take away critical agricultural lands and add to the traffic headache faced daily by West Oahu commuters. But supporters said the project would provide badly needed homes and jobs for Oahu at a time when demand for both are on the rise.

The project, which would be developed largely on land now being used to grow produce by Aloun Farms and two smaller farms, already would be allowable because it falls within a so-called Urban Growth Boundary in the existing Ewa plan.

So opponents of the project in essence were calling on Council members to take Ho‘opili, a development of D.R. Horton, out of the urban growth area.

Dean Capelouto, a member of the Makakilo/Kapolei/ Honokai Hale Neighborhood Board, said allowing Ho‘opili to be developed would jeopardize the future of food sustainability on the island. Some experts believe the new Ewa plan "is possibly the biggest sustainability or planning mistake ever in the history of the state of Hawaii," he said.

Capelouto added, "Our children, your children, can’t eat houses."

Al Lardizabal, government and communications director for the Laborers’ International Union of North America Local 368, said he makes no apologies for supporting Ho‘opili for the jobs and homes it would provide.

"Thousands of your Hawaii workers would benefit," Lardizabal said. He said he also embraces the phrase "keep the country country" but does so by adhering to plans first made by the city in the 1970s to confine future growth to urban Hono­lulu, the Ewa plain and Central Oahu.

Judith Flanders, a descendant of James Campbell and a beneficiary of the Campbell Estate, said estate trustees made a mistake selling the lands under Ho‘opili to Horton. Flanders urged the city to rectify "the wrong that was perpetuated against the aina when the Campbell Estate sold somewhere around 1,375 acres of prime grade A and B agricultural lands to the developer."

Horton spokesman Cameron Nekota said that as a result of community input, the developer decided to set aside 159, and then 203 acres for agricultural use.

As for concerns about traffic, Nekota said some improvements are planned, including a dedicated Kualakai Parkway offramp lane and expansion of Farrington Highway as instructed by the state Department of Transportation.

Many of those who opposed the bill urged Council members to defer a final vote largely to allow the newly elected Makakilo/ Kapolei/Honokai Hale Neighborhood Board to give its input. Previous members of the Makakilo panel, like its counterpart in Ewa, supported the Ewa development plan.

But Department of Planning and Permitting official Bob Stanfield, under questioning from Councilwoman Kymberly Pine, said the city has held more than 11 major meetings and more than 20 small-group sessions on the plan.

Stanfield, chief of the Development Plans and Zone Change Branch, also reiterated that the Ewa plan is only a guide and that Council members would not be obligated to approve rezoning for Ho‘opili or any other development.

Ewa region Council members Pine and Ron Menor said they intend to look at zoning requests for the area on a case-by-case basis.