Every Sunday, “Back in the Day” looks at an article that ran on this date in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. The items are verbatim, so don’t blame us today for yesteryear’s bad grammar.
The City Planning Commission today approved a future land use plan for the City of Honolulu, which temporarily retains 1,600 acres of farm area near Koko Head.
The plan approved also withholds final approval of the resort and commercial aspects of Henry J. Kaiser’s $350 million Hawaii Kai development until Kaiser presents a more concrete program.
The land use plan will be sent to the Federal Government for approval as part of Honolulu’s urban renewal program to clear slum areas and keep fine residential areas.
The farm area retained, at least until Kaiser asks for a different zoning, adjoins Kuliouou Valley and Maunalua.
Commission member Thomas M. Yamabe argued for keeping the farm area because of encroaching urbanization on Oahu.
"We can’t have complete urbanization, but should look forward to diversified uses on the Island," Yamabe declared.
On a motion of Commission chairman John H. Felix, the commission agreed to designate as residential the areas in Hawaii Kai which had been proposed for resort-hotel-apartment and commercial uses by the city planning department.
Felix said that he was not against Kaiser’s Hawaii Kai, but he felt Kaiser’s plans are not yet complete and that perhaps some of the land should be used for agricultural purposes.
Deputy Planning Director Henry Tuck Au argued in favor of putting more land into residential and apartment uses because the high value of Honolulu land "preclude a farming use." He said that farming should be confined to Oahu’s rural areas.
The planners envisioned the future Hono-lulu with almost 10,000 acres of residential development, one-third of the total usable land area in Honolulu.
Heavy industry is to be concentrated in the Iwilei, Kalihi-kai and Mapunapuna areas, with light industry in the Sheridan, Kewalo and Kakaako districts.
No great expansion is foreseen in the downtown business district, except in the Kukui redevelopment area.
