The city’s proposed plan to change the long-term development of nearly 84,000 acres of urban land stretching from East Honolulu to Pearl City has advanced.

The Honolulu Planning Commission voted unanimously Wednesday to adopt and accept recommended changes meant to revise, repeal and update aspects of the city’s primary urban center development plan emcompassing almost 448,700 people and over 177,380 housing units, on an island that’s home to nearly 990,000 residents.

The panel’s action, following a prior meeting in November, will allow the City Council to hold future public hearings over the latest plan.

Finalized in October by the city Department of Planning and Permitting, the proposed plan — guided by the city’s General Plan — looks toward future changes of the primary urban center, or PUC, along the island’s southern coastline.

According to the city, those changes affect housing, parks and open space, transportation and transit-­oriented development, healthy communities for aging adults, economic development, water resources as well as climate change and the effects of sea level rise.

“The Primary Urban Center includes major economic activity hubs, from the lively Downtown and Civic Center, to the island’s primary resort area, Waikiki. Industrial land and office uses are sufficient to support and expand economic activity, especially near the airport, harbor, and downtown business districts,” the plan states. “Increased mixed-uses, co-working environments and flexible spaces are encouraged.

“It is also home to neighborhoods old and new, reflecting Oahu’s diverse community and rich culture. New developments are encouraged to design for all age groups and users, and a mix of household sizes,” the plan states.

Moreover, the plan notes the “majority of growth in the PUC will be guided to align with rail transit service and new investments that improve transportation choices for residents. Transit-­oriented development in rail station areas will be a key contributor in delivering new affordable housing units through the city’s affordable housing requirements, allowing more residents to live and work in town.”

But for the purposes of Wednesday’s commission meeting, publicly requested changes or amendments previously submitted to DPP — and approved by the department — were added to the latest development plan, mainly affecting East Honolulu.

Introduced in a motion by Commissioner Kai Nani Kraut, three DPP-recommended amendments were attached to the development plan that included lowering future building heights.

Specifically, under DPP’s recommendation, that included nixing construction of two- to four-story buildings in favor of one- to three-stories in the area Diamond Head of Kapahulu Avenue, mauka of Brokaw Street, and makai of H-1 freeway.

Two other city-recommended amendments garnered from the public involved unobstructed view planes.

Those included “a request to incorporate significant panoramic public views from Wilhelmina Rise toward Maunalua Bay,” and “add a significant panoramic public view from Kahala towards Diamond Head,” according to Kraut’s motion.

Prior to that motion, however, the public weighed in on the latest primary urban center development plan.

Among them, Diamond Head-Kapahulu-St. Louis Heights Neighborhood Board Chair Winston Welch thanked DPP staff for their “hard work” to update the plan. However, Welch said greater public outreach should have occurred over a plan he believed few in the community knew much about.

“And that has been our objection all along,” he said. “I would say 99.99% of residents in my neighborhood do not know about the changes that could be affecting their neighborhoods.”

He added, “It’s incumbent upon DPP to send out a postcard saying ‘Hey, we’re thinking about doing this, that hasn’t happened here.’”

Meanwhile, 50-year Kapahulu resident Daisy Murai wanted smarter growth to occur around her neighborhood and the rest of urban Honolulu rather than just allowing construction of generally unaffordable, high-rise buildings.

“Now, if you make it all high-rise it’s like going to New York or London or Chicago, Hawaii is different,” she said. “Please keep the neighborhood quality and don’t make it so expensive.”

Manoa Neighborhood Board member Whitney Bosel said she was in support of the latest development plan, but noted “there’s no mention of fire in the entire document other than mentioning the fire department.”

“And I would think that the urban growth boundary is this general zone that you want to maintain growth in but, I feel like there ought to be something apart from just the TOD zone … there ought to be an intermediary zone where it can be more clear that infill ought to be rather limited,” Bosel said, adding there appeared to be a missing zoning and land use designation. “Especially in regards to limited infrastructure, fire risk, things like that on ridge tops and in the back of valleys … so that there’s something more clear for those wanting to develop.”

According to the city, the prior PUC development plan was last adopted in 2004. Since then, the city says it now faces multiple challenges affecting residents.

Among them, rents in Hono­lulu increased by almost 42% between 2010 and 2021, placing the city among the top 10 most-expensive rental markets in the United States, the city says.

Likewise, climate change hazards and effects are “increasing in frequency and intensity, including sea level rise, impacts in the PUC” and are “projected to be disproportionately higher than elsewhere in the State due to the high density and high value of development on the region’s low-lying coastal lands,” the plan states.

Also, Oahu’s heavily trafficked highways are anticipated to become even more congested, as the number of daily trips made by residents islandwide is expected to increase by 27% from 2007 levels to the year 2035, the plan states.

And according to the plan, the primary urban center “experienced considerable growth with the addition of almost 30,000 people in 5,000 households between 2000 and 2015, yet in the past several years, the PUC has mirrored the island-wide trend of a net outflow of population.”

The population distribution in the city’s general plan calls for the primary urban center to retain the majority of the island’s population, about 43%, through 2040.

Meanwhile, the plan states there are many ongoing and planned development projects in the primary urban center, including:

>> Mixed-use and residential projects located in the Ala Moana TOD Neighborhood Plan area;

>> Redevelopment of Mayor Wright public housing in the Kalihi-Palama area into a mixed-income, mixed-use neighborhood, and other major Hawaii Public Housing Authority projects;

>> A series of plans and proposals on publicly owned lands, most notably the redevelopment of old, shuttered Aloha Stadium into the New Aloha Stadium Entertainment District;

>> The proposed relocation of the Oahu Community Correctional Center to Halawa and potential redevelopment of its current Kalihi site;

>> And the completion of redevelopment in Kakaako, including mixed-use and residential high-rises, commercial spaces, and additional public open space.

According to the city, adopted ordinances for its regional plans — including the primary urban center development plan — are reviewed every five years. However, this and other more recent plans recommend a 10-year interval as a more desirable and feasible timeline, the city says.