The first of up to 3,500 houses for Castle & Cooke Hawaii’s Koa Ridge project could be occupied by 2016 with the City Council’s 9-0 approval Wednesday of the developer’s rezoning plan.
The go-ahead came despite lingering concerns about what opponents estimate will result in 7,000 more cars on the H-2 freeway, the loss of valuable agricultural lands and whether homes Castle & Cooke must set aside for lower-income families will be within their financial reach.
Four Council members — Carol Fukunaga, Ann Kobayashi, Joey Manahan and Ron Menor — voted yes with reservations.
The developer must also still fend off legal challenges that the Sierra Club Hawaii chapter brought against the project in connection with approvals Koa Ridge received from the state Land Use Commission.
As has been the case whenever Koa Ridge has been up for a public vote through the past 12 years, there were passionate arguments for and against the project Wednesday.
Mililani resident Lance Yoshimura said he wants his children to buy homes at Koa Ridge so that he can be nearby to baby-sit his grandchildren. Yoshimura also pointed out that land at Koa Ridge is also to be set aside for a replacement of Wahiawa General Hospital, which he noted has been obsolete for a number of years.
t"The community needs a hospital at Koa Ridge," he said. Yoshimura is a member of the Mililani Mauka/ Laulaunui Valley Neighborhood Board, which voted to support the project.
But Richard Poirier, the longtime chairman of the Mililani Neighborhood Board, which has raised objections to Koa Ridge for more than a decade, again spelled out the concerns he and other neighbors have had. Poirier said revisions of both the Oahu General Plan and Central Oahu Sustainable Communities Plan should be completed before any consideration is given to rezoning Koa Ridge land from agricultural to commercial and residential use.
Tina Grandinetti, who grew up in Mililani and is now in her 20s, spoke of the breathtaking view she gets driving into Honolulu along the H-2, and the vast expanse that begins at a gulch and crosses into what would be Koa Ridge. Grandinetti said she is skeptical development at Koa Ridge would bring jobs that would be attractive to her.
"Providing housing and jobs for the people of Oahu (are) important, but we have the power to demand the kind of housing and the kind of jobs that will truly provide for the next generation," she said.
Several opponents spoke about the effect they expect the project will have on traffic. Castle & Cooke has committed to $100 million in traffic improvements, including a new H-2 interchange and a 90 percent subsidized bus pass for each Koa Ridge household, but opponents say those improvements will do little to ease traffic on the freeway itself.
Sierra Club officials noted that growth is supposed to be directed toward Kapolei and West Oahu, and that Koa Ridge is several miles away from the nearest stop on the city’s $5.26 billion rail project. The Sierra Club said putting 3,500 jobs away from the rail line sabotages the effectiveness and viability of mass transit.
Kapolei resident Pele Lui-Yuen, a representative for the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades District Council 50 Local 1926, which represents carpet, linoleum and soft tile trade workers, said he is tired of hearing people opposing Koa Ridge with the argument that it would create more traffic.
"Wherever I live, my job is on the other side of the island," Lui-Yuen said. "You gotta do what you gotta do. If you don’t like it, move closer to your work. Traffic will always be there."
City planners said they consider Koa Ridge "infill" housing between Waipio and Mililani, and that they expect city transit officials will put in a circulator bus route that would run the two to three miles between the new development and the major transit station at Pearl Highlands.
A key discussion point for Council members was the price of the 30 percent of the homes that Castle & Cooke will need to set aside for affordable housing.
Menor has introduced legislation that would have the city re-evaluate its affordable housing policy and redefine the types of affordable units large-scale developers must provide. Specifically, he wants homes geared more toward families making 60 to 80 percent of median family income and eliminate units aimed at those making up to 140 percent of median from the definition of affordable.
Bruce Barrett, Castle & Cooke executive vice president, said that because mortgage interest rates are a key part of the equation federal housing officials use to determine the price of affordable units, an anticipated increase in rates to 6 percent from the current 4.25 percent will bring down the price of affordable homes at Koa Ridge significantly.
A home geared toward a family making 140 percent of median would be priced at $682,000 at the current 4.25 percent, but $560,100 when the interest rate is 6 percent, Barrett said. That would be less than the $585,100 that a family making 120 percent of median would pay at 4.25 percent today, he said.
