The largest funeral and cemetery service company in the world will be allowed to expand Hawaiian Memorial Park in Kaneohe under a state decision Wednesday.

Hawaiian Memorial’s owner, Texas-based Service Corp. International, received permission from the state Land Use Commission to extend the existing 80-acre cemetery onto an adjacent 28 acres of forested hillside that would be graded to create 30,000 new burial sites.

Commission members voted 6-1 to reclassify the land from conservation to urban use, and attached a long list of conditions to address issues of stormwater drainage, endangered species habitat, tree removal, rockfall hazards and other concerns that led a community group to challenge the plan in the LUC’s quasi-judicial proceeding that began in January and involved expert witness testimony.

Hui o Pikoiloa, the community group representing mainly residents near the planned cemetery expansion site, had successfully contested a prior Hawaiian Memorial expansion plan rejected by the LUC in 2009.

Wednesday’s vote on the amended plan was almost unanimous, but represented a narrow approval given that six votes were needed to permit the expansion under rules of the commission, which was missing two members from the vote because one member was absent and one seat is vacant.

Generally, most commissioners agreed that commitments and requirements to mitigate negative impacts were adequate, including a habitat protection plan for an endangered native damselfly in the area.

Also, the plan attracted support for creating an easement that would be held by a nonprofit land trust and prohibit future development of 130 acres of adjacent Service Corp. land, and creating a cultural preserve around an ancient Native Hawaiian heiau to be managed by a cultural group with Service Corp. covering expenses.

“I’m conflicted, but really for many of the reasons about balancing, I’m going to vote in favor of this motion,” said LUC Chairman Jonathan Likeke Scheuer. “And it’s with regret for the really incredible job that the intervenors (Hui o Pikoiloa) did.”

Grant Yoshimura, Hui o Pikoiloa’s representative in the hearing, argued that the land-use change should be rejected over the stated negative impacts. He also contended that there are plenty of available grave sites on Oahu to last through 2040, and that Service Corp. will destroy a natural area with its plan that includes making 10- to 75-foot cuts into the hillside.

“These changes will be extreme,” he said.

Yoshimura also noted that 2,900 people signed a petition against the project.

“There is large community opposition,” he told commissioners.

Commissioner Dawn Chang acknowledged this public opposition, but also said a broader community view was expressed through a revision to the Koolaupoko Sustainable Communities Plan that included the City Council amending Oahu’s urban growth boundary in 2017 so that it included the cemetery expansion site.

This boundary was part of the reason a plan by Service Corp. in 2007, which also included four mausoleums and a 20-home subdivision, was rejected by the LUC in 2009.

Conditions for the cemetery’s expansion now include making stormwater detention basins bigger than proposed to reduce the risk of flooding of homes below the expansion site, planting one tree on Oahu for every one removed, finding new uses for excavated soil instead of putting it in a landfill, keeping the community informed of work and other things.

The state Office of Planning and city Department of Planning and Permitting participated in the case, which included hearings in June, July and August, and supported the land-use change that applies to 53 acres, of which 28 would be for cemetery use.

Commissioner Gary Okuda cast the vote against the project, saying benefits don’t outweigh negative impacts.

“I cannot see justification for a project with these types of downside risks which will basically reward the world’s largest funeral/mortuary/cemetery company with possibly half a billion dollars for the exchange that we get,” he said.

Hawaiian Memorial opened in 1958 on 6 acres and today has 79,000 plots on 80 acres. Of the 79,000 plots, all but 4,500 have been sold, though only 41,000 are occupied.

Service Corp. estimates that the expansion will cost $29 million. Construction is projected to be done in phases over 10 years.