New Hope Leeward calls it the "Promised Land" — 203 acres of farmland in Kunia on which the growing church hopes to establish a permanent home that includes a sanctuary, high school and Bible college linked with farming.
But after two years of work, the roughly $30 million plan that the church said was inspired by God is not passing muster with the city and its land use ordinance.
The city Department of Planning and Permitting rejected the plan in January as an improper use of land zoned for agriculture.
However, since then the department installed a new director, George Atta. As it happens, Atta is the one who submitted the church’s plan to the department in January when he was a principal with local planning and design firm Group 70 International. Now the church is working to submit a revised plan and hopes it will get a better reception.
Atta was appointed by Mayor Kirk Caldwell in February and confirmed by the City Council in April. Atta disclosed his conflict concerning the New Hope project before he was appointed, and mentioned it to the City Council during confirmation. He also has recused himself from any review or decision on the project, and divested himself of financial interest in Group 70.
Art Challacombe, the department’s deputy director, is tasked with making any subsequent decision on the project.
The church aims to address previous department objections but did not say, in response to questions from the Star-Advertiser, specifically how it intends to revise its plan.
A renewed effort likely will draw special scrutiny given the connection between the church’s plan and the department’s director.
New Hope Leeward is pushing ahead with its attempt to develop the Promised Land site because it faces challenges leasing suitable property to accommodate a growing congregation.
"With all of our ministry programs and activities, New Hope Leeward is bursting at the seams," Mike Lwin, the church’s senior pastor, said in a video promoting the Promised Land plan. (The video can be seen on the church’s website: newhopeleeward.org/promisedland.)
New Hope Leeward was established in 2003 as an outgrowth of New Hope O‘ahu and for the last three years has been ranked as one of the 100 fastest-growing churches in America by Outreach Magazine.
Attendance for Saturday and Sunday services has more than tripled to about 4,400 today from about 1,200 in 2005.
Such growth has become a facilities challenge for the church, which has previously held services at the Pearl Highlands theaters and the gym at Campbell High School. Today the church operates out of a former Safeway store site at Waipahu Town Center, but the lease ends in February and the owner plans to lease the space to Seafood City Supermarket, a Filipino grocery store.
New Hope Leeward has lined up replacement space at three separate sites: Waipahu Town Center, the Pearlridge theaters and a soon-to-be-vacated Ace Hardware store in Kapolei. But that’s not an ideal solution for the church.
"God gave us a dream," Lwin said in the promotional video for the Promise Land project. "The Promised Land is his vision to reach and transform our community and beyond."
But New Hope Leeward needs approval from the city or from the state, then the city, to build a church on what is now farmland.
NEW HOPE Leeward’s original plan sought a special-use permit and zoning change from the city.
The Promised Land site is zoned AG-1, a designation for large parcels of farmland that prohibits many nonfarm uses, including churches and schools.
City zoning rules allow churches and schools along with recreational facilities on land under another type of agriculture zoning, AG-2, with a special-use permit. New Hope Leeward applied for such a permit and a zoning change for part of the site but was rejected.
AG-2 zoning is intended to conserve and protect agricultural activities on smaller parcels of land, generally under 5 acres.
The church characterized its plan as fulfilling that general intent because it would seek to put more of the 203 acres into crop production than is currently being farmed, according to the church’s application. It would do that by establishing an agricultural park for lease to farmers.
The 203 acres were once planted in sugar cane, but only about a quarter of the land, or roughly 50 acres, is cultivated today, according to the church.
A Japanese company, Nihonkai Lease Co. now known as Nihonkai Richland Inc., bought the parcel in 1987 for $5.9 million intending to develop a golf course. At the time, golf courses were allowed on land zoned for agriculture. But economic factors stymied Nihonkai’s plan, and farming continued on the site under different lessees.
Khamphout Farm subleases the parcel from local food company executive Mike Irish, whose lease with Nihonkai expires in the near future, according to the application.
New Hope Leeward has agreed to buy the land from Nihonkai for about $10 million and expects to spend close to $20 million developing church facilities on part of the parcel.
The church specifically applied to rezone 48 acres as AG-2 land and obtain a special-use permit to develop a sanctuary, a school for preschool to 12th-grade students, a Bible college, 900 parking spaces, two sports fields and an amphitheater.
A wastewater treatment facility and some land for church farming programs also would be on the 48-acre site.
No homes are proposed "at this time," but a few might be added in the future for teachers, counselors, caretakers, pastors and farmers, according to the application.
THE 155-acre balance would become an ag park with a professional partner, producing what New Hope Leeward called a "win-win" situation that provides the church with permanent facilities and generates more farming on the land.
"The project will help support new agricultural opportunities for Hawaii which will achieve commercial-scale production for the Hawaii market," the application said. "This will help make these vacant lands productive again."
New Hope Leeward has attracted support from the state Agribusiness Development Corp., an agency that has bought private land upon which to develop ag parks. Two area neighborhood boards, Mililani-Waipio and Waipahu, also have endorsed the church’s plan.
But the Department of Planning and Permitting concluded in its January decision that the development plan exceeds the scope and intent of special permit provisions.
"The proposal essentially urbanizes agricultural land, and would circumvent the intent of (state land-use law)," wrote Jiro Sumada, the department’s deputy director, who at the time was acting director.
Sumada, who left the department to work for local planning, engineering and construction management firm Lyon Associates, noted in the rejection letter that the church’s planned project would serve an estimated 1,000 to 2,600 people on weekends and 600 to 2,200 people on weekdays and weeknights.
THE CHURCH and school facilities, which total about 120,000 square feet of building area, would be more suitable on urban land, Sumada said in the letter.
Under state law the city may grant a special-use permit to build on agricultural land if the land is less than 15 acres. New Hope Leeward’s application said it would limit development to 14.7 acres even though it is asking to rezone 48 acres.
The city cannot authorize uses that have the effect of changing a state land-use boundary, according to the state attorney general.
The state Land Use Commission has the power to change ag land to urban land, but that would be a more difficult process compared with a special-use permit from the city.
Kathy Sokugawa, head of the city’s Planning Division, recommended that the church apply to the state Land Use Commission for permission to develop the land. The church instead has decided to reapply with the city.
New Hope Leeward said in its January application it hoped to obtain the city’s approval in time to start construction this year or early next year on an initial phase of a multipurpose building and an elementary school.
