Lawmakers propose thousands of affordable homes around a new Aloha Stadium

A state agency is close to narrowing a competition among developers to turn land around Aloha Stadium into a mixed-use community including around 3,000 homes, but state lawmakers are being asked to consider reserving the area for a tremendous amount of affordable housing instead.

A few different bills introduced at the Legislature this year call for building 20,000 to 75,000 homes on some or all of 73 acres around a new planned stadium on 25 acres in Halawa to address Hawaii’s short supply of affordable housing.

Meanwhile, the state Department of Accounting and General Services is expected by Monday to select a short list of preferred developers to submit detailed plans to lease and redevelop the state-owned land around the stadium into a community with retail, restaurant, entertainment, hotel, office, residential and other uses.

DAGS recently discounted the notion of concentrating affordable housing around a new stadium, which the agency intends to produce under a separate pending competitive bidding process.

“We have to be responsible and think about what makes sense for this area,” Chris Kinimaka, public works administrator for DAGS, said during a presentation last week to the Hawaii Society of Business Professionals. “We don’t consider building this concentration of tall towers a benefit to the community,” she said.

DAGS produced a rendering showing 53 towers surrounding the stadium to show what 20,000 homes might look like on 73 acres.

By comparison, the 60-acre Ward Village area in Kakaako is slated for about 4,300 homes in 16 towers, each rising up to 400 feet.

City transit-oriented development zoning for land around the stadium, which is adjacent to a city rail station, limits building heights to mainly between 90 feet and 150 feet with a small area up to 250 feet. DAGS suggested that producing 20,000 homes on the 73-acre site could be done with five 250-foot towers and 48 towers rising about 200 feet.

Kinimaka also estimated that it would cost $6 billion to build 20,000 homes, based on a conservative price of $300 per square foot if each home had 1,000 square feet of living space.

Sen. Glenn Wakai, a proponent of the DAGS redevelopment plan, said during the presentation to the business group that affordable housing is a pressing need but that concentrating so many homes around the stadium isn’t realistic.

Wakai said leasing the land around the stadium to a developer could produce upward of $40 million for the state, which could be used to build affordable housing near other stations along the city’s planned 20-mile rail line from East Kapolei to Ala Moana Center.

“To me that is where our strategy should be on addressing affordable housing,” he said. “Not just dumping 20-, 40-, 100,000 units onto this property and looking at this 90 acres as a solution for Hawaii’s (affordable-housing) woes.”

At the low end of this range, Senate Bill 2505 suggests that 20,000 homes be developed on 40 acres surrounding the stadium, equivalent to 500 homes per acre, and that at least 100,000 homes be developed near Aloha Stadium. Of all these homes, 80% would have to be affordable to households earning no more than 80% of the median income in Honolulu.

SB 2505 was introduced by Sens. Stanley Chang, Karl Rhoads and Clarence Nishihara.

Chang said too many Hawaii residents are struggling with the cost of living, including high-priced housing, to pass up an opportunity to produce a lot of affordable housing on such a big piece of state land in urban Honolulu.

“I haven’t met anyone in Hawaii who believes the highest and best use of the stadium property is a strip mall, a hotel, an office building and luxury housing,” he said. “I think it’s imperative to use state lands near rail infrastructure to house the people of Hawaii.”

Another bill would require that 75,000 affordable rental homes be built on at least 73 acres surrounding the stadium. This measure, Senate Bill 2574, was introduced by Chang and Sens. Kurt Fevella, Jarrett Keohokalole, Rosalyn Baker and Gil Riviere. Wakai also is listed as a sponsor, but he said he mistakenly signed on to the bill.

In the House, 10 lawmakers introduced House Bill 2018, which says 20,000 affordable homes can be built on the 73-acre site, and directs the Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corp., a state agency, to develop a plan to do that roughly before the end of next year.

Introduction of the three bills follows a public appeal made in October by three former Hawaii governors — Neil Abercrombie, Ben Caye­tano and John Waihee — for the state to scrap building a new stadium in Halawa and use the entire 98-acre property for predominantly residential development focused on workforce housing.

Given that a majority of lawmakers previously endorsed private redevelopment of land around the stadium in conjunction with building a new stadium partly financed by the state, it’s questionable whether any of the three new bills can pass or derail the DAGS-led project known as the New Aloha Stadium Entertainment District.

Last year, a bill similar to SB 2505 calling for 20,000 affordable homes on 40 acres around the stadium and at least 100,000 affordable homes on or close to the property was introduced. This measure — Senate Bill 737 introduced by Chang, Rhoads and Sens. Bennette Misalucha and Maile Shimabukuro — did not receive a hearing.