A developer has revived plans to extend a subdivision of million-dollar homes in Hawaii Kai onto land zoned for preservation after making similar efforts twice before in recent decades.

Philip Ho, who in 2005 developed the 70-home Koko Villas subdivision on land zoned for residential use bordering part of the Hawaii Kai Golf Course across from the Queen’s Gate subdivision, aims to build more houses next to Koko Villas on about 3.3 acres of land that would need a zoning change from the Honolulu City Council.

A representative of the developer, Jeff Overton of local planning firm G70, recently shared early conceptual plans with Koko Villas residents and the Hawaii Kai Neighborhood Board in an effort to obtain feedback that might help shape the plan he described as a final phase of development in the area.

The feedback included opposition representing continued pushback to Ho’s earlier efforts to expand Koko Villas.

Overton told the neighborhood board at a June 27 meeting that Ho’s initial idea or “first pass” for the new project called Koko Terrace featured 19 two-story duplexes. Of the 38 units, 28 would be along Kealahou Street in front of Koko Villas, while 10 would be along Kokonani Street above the existing subdivision and close to the city’s Koko Crater Botanical Garden and an equestrian center.

After hearing concerns from Koko Villas residents in May over density and impacts to view planes, Overton said the plan was reshaped with 21 single-­story, single-family homes, five of which would be along Kokonani Street.

“We’re at a very early stage,” he told the neighborhood board.

If the plan is realized, Overton said he expects that home prices would be comparable to Koko Villas. Those homes were originally sold in 2004 and 2005 for $600,000 to $1.3 million, and resales since 2022 have been for $1.7 million to $2.5 million.

Overton told the board that more homes next to Koko Villas would represent in-fill development on land designated for long-range residential use under the East Honolulu Sustainable Communities Plan updated in 2022 and approved by the City Council.

The community plan identifies the area proposed for housing by Ho as being within the community growth boundary for urban use, specifically residential or low-density apartment use, as indicated on two maps.

“That policy decision has already been made by our community that at some point in time, whether it’s in two years or 20 years, ultimately this would be land that we would target for that kind of use,” Overton told the board.

Greg Knudsen, a board member, responded during the meeting that another part of the community plan referencing Koko Villas states that zoning takes precedent over community growth boundary maps.

Knudsen quoted the passage, which in part states, “The ambiguity to the distinction between urban and preservation areas for Koko Villas is a reminder that these maps are only intended to be illustrations and where there are contradictions between the map and the text, or with other entitlements such as zoning, other regulatory tools will take precedence.”

“I don’t see a whole lot of flexibility in that,” Knudsen said. “It’s zoned P-2 (general preservation). It is not residential.”

Knudsen criticized Overton for suggesting to the neighborhood board that policymakers and people who helped update the community plan from a 1999 version support residential development on the land that Ho wants to develop.

Knudsen added that the board isn’t anti-development, and noted that it supported Koko Villas. He also noted that the board has a long history of advocacy for protecting land zoned for preservation.

Elizabeth Reilly, another neighborhood board member, said she helped produce the community plan update and agreed with Knudsen.

“It’s not planned for housing in this document,” she said, referring to the land Ho wants to develop around Koko Villas.

Ho, through California-­based Konakoh Inc., bought about 45 acres in the area from Kamehameha Schools in 1999, including 15 acres zoned for residential use and about 30 acres zoned for preservation.

The developer in 2000 pursued a zoning change for roughly 4 acres of preservation land he envisioned at the time for about 20 homes while preparing the 15 acres of residential-zoned land for construction.

In 2004 the developer pursued an alternate plan to build 11 homes on a preservation-zoned parcel, and met with unanimous neighborhood board opposition. A representative of the developer let the neighborhood board know in 2008, as a recession was unfolding, that the plan was no longer being pursued.

Overton said at the recent neighborhood board meeting that to move ahead with a new version of the plan would involve producing an environmental assessment and a zoning change application filed with the city ahead of City Council consideration. That work, if it advances, would likely take 18 to 24 months.

In the meantime, Overton said more meetings with residents in nearby communities are intended, and he encouraged the neighborhood board to support the project that he said would improve Oahu’s housing market where demand exceeds supply.

The board deferred taking a position on the Koko Terrace plan.