The demand for homes spurred Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell to sign a bill Wednesday giving Castle & Cooke Hawaii the green light for its 3,500-unit Koa Ridge community in Central Oahu.

"The only way we’re going to deal with our skyrocketing housing prices is by building more products and more units," Caldwell told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser on Wednesday before he signed the bill changing the zoning from agriculture to residential for most of the 576 acres of former pineapple land between Waipio and Mililani. "The more that go on the market, that’s going to control the increase in price."

Koa Ridge officials said they expect the first homes to be ready for occupancy in 2016.

The Honolulu City Council approved Bill 48 unanimously on Nov. 20, although several Council members echoed the concerns raised by project critics about the loss of agricultural land, an anticipated spike in cars along the congested H-2 freeway corridor and the affordability of the homes to be built.

Councilman Ron Menor, who represents the Central Oahu region, tried unsuccessfully to persuade his colleagues and the developer to create homes at lower prices that would make it more accessible to lower-income families.

The city’s existing affordable housing policy requires 30 percent of Koa Ridge’s units to be sold at prices attainable by Oahu families making 140 percent of median income or less.

Menor said homes priced for 140 percent of median would essentially make the units market-rate houses. He wanted to require that the affordable homes be made available to those making 120 percent of median income or less, and that, for the first time, a portion of affordable units be rental dwellings.

Menor’s colleagues rejected the proposal after Koa Ridge officials argued that it would force them to charge more for their market units and potentially kill the viability of the project entirely.

Caldwell told the Star-Advertiser he is open to discussing changes to the city’s affordable housing policies as suggested by Menor. Two resolutions introduced by Menor call on the city to re-evaluate its affordable housing policies.

But Caldwell also emphasized that he also doesn’t want to discourage developers.

"I’m 100 percent on board with trying to figure out ways to make housing more affordable," the mayor said. "I am concerned that if we just mandate a certain level of affordability, what it can do is just kill projects outright because it drives up the cost of all the other types of housing so nothing gets built."

Caldwell said city officials are proposing incentives designed to encourage developers to build more affordable units within the so-called Transit Oriented Development neighborhoods that are expected to sprout around the major stations along the city’s 20-mile, $5.26 billion rail project.