A divisive 14-year fight at the Honolulu City Council over proposed development in Malaekahana appears to be nearing a conclusion, with advocates for preserving agricultural lands and containing growth winning over those who consider housing a higher priority for the community.

The Council Zoning and Planning Committee voted Thursday to remove language from a planning document that would allow up to 200 residential units on 50 acres of undeveloped land that straddles Laie and Malaekahana.

Landowner HRI Inc., the local management arm of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, would still gain the ability to develop up to 200 residential units just outside the Brigham Young University-Hawaii campus. The church oversees both BYUH and the neighboring Polynesian Cultural Center, the most dominant presences in the Laie community.

The full Council must still vote twice on Bill 79, an update of the Koolauloa Sustainable Communities Plan. That process likely will run into the new year, when five fresh faces join the nine-member Council, but all sides of the long-running debate gave indications they view the matter nearly over.

The updated plan is meant to guide land-use policies over the entire Koolauloa region, which covers the northeastern part of the island from about Kawela Bay to a point just north of Kaneohe Bay. It’s an area that includes Kahuku, Turtle Bay Resort, Laie, Hauula, Punaluu, Kaaawa and Kualoa Ranch.

But it has been HRI Inc.’s plans for the Laie-Malaeka- hana area that have claimed most of the attention, splitting the community and stalling adoption of the Koolauloa plan since 2006, even though updates are supposed to happen every five years.

The issue inspired throngs of people on both sides of the issue to pack a series of meetings over the years held in neighborhood school cafeterias and at Honolulu Hale.

“This has been through a lot,” Council Zoning Chairman Ron Menor said, shaking his head, as the vote was about to be taken.

Area Councilwoman Heidi Tsuneyoshi, whose staunch opposition to Malaekahana development keyed its removal from the Koolauloa plan, was overcome with emotion at the meeting. She acknowledged the divisiveness the debate has created and said she agrees there’s a pressing need for additional housing in the area.

“But we’ve been so narrowly focused on building on these agricultural lands and moving the community growth boundary when that’s not our only option,” Tsuneyoshi said.

As the area’s largest landowner, HRI has “had great opportunities and (been) given a lot of leeway over the years to build and develop in ways that profit and support HRI and BYU,” including the opportunity to develop a hotel, she said.

“This is not saying no to housing; this is saying no to building on agricultural land and moving a community growth boundary that has long been supported as necessary to make sure that can leave our options for protecting our important green space and agricultural land and the rural character of that community,” Tsuneyo-shi said.

She vowed to work with HRI and others in the community to locate more housing options on land already zoned for residential use. She noted the 200 additional units near the BYUH campus could be re-designated for area families and workers, while the college could construct additional housing for faculty and staff on campus, where it’s already allowed.

Eric Beaver, HRI president and chief executive officer, said in his testimony that “I cannot support an amendment that would remove the housing designation near the north boundary of Laie … when housing has been the community’s top priority for decades.”

Beaver said original plans called for development of 875 units, but HRI agreed to reduce that number first to 750 units, then 550 and now 200.

During early years of the debate, there were many more who supported the cry for more housing, according to Beaver. Many were kupuna who have since died, he said.

Meanwhile, the scenario he and other supporters of HRI’s Envision Laie plan had hoped to avoid has come to fruition as the lack of reasonably priced housing and the rising costs of existing inventory have driven many younger people to leave the area.

“As each year ticks by and this continues to be pushed further, the housing shortage … only gets worse,” he said.

“Clearly, the matter’s in your hands,” Beaver said. “HRI is no longer driving this effort since we’ve done everything we can.”

Kela Miller, a member of the Laie Community Association and a fourth-generation area resident, told Council members that nearly all of the elders who first led the fight for more housing are now gone. There continues to be broad support for housing in Laie, but those cries are not being considered, Miller said.

“Why are we not being considered, and why are we not able to get those homes that we need?”

HRI has been a good steward to the community, she said. “We have remained sustainable in all ways with a good mix of preservation, some economic development and additional housing for our community members.”

On the other side, Margaret Primacio, president of the Defend Oahu Coalition, was ecstatic about Thursday’s decision. She credited the strong effort to a string of community leaders who fought over the years against further development.

“But this is the beginning,” Primacio said. “We want to make sure our policies are followed and that ag land can remain as agricultural, food-growing land and that we take care of our land and water.”

As for the need for more housing, the city owns roughly 40 to 50 acres of undeveloped land on the makai side of Kahuku near the old sugar mill that could be repurposed for community housing, Primacio said. “There’s room for infill all along our coastline,” she said.

Even then the Defend Oahu Coalition and others in the community will be monitoring developments to ensure there is no unnecessary encroachment into agricultural lands, Primacio said.