The Honolulu City Council postponed indefinitely a controversial housing proposal in Hale‘iwa on Wednesday.
Hale‘iwa residents have been incensed about a proposal by a company called Hale‘iwa Backyards LLC which would build a 150-unit affordable housing project on a 7.5-acre parcel alongside Joseph P. Leong Highway.
Each council and committee meeting about the company’s request for a boundary amendment to reclassify the parcel from the Agricultural District to the Urban District has been prefaced by hours of fervid testimony by residents about how the project will negatively impact the area.
On Wednesday, the Council met to hear the proposal on its third and final reading, and once again opponents gathered to oppose it. Many testifiers wore green shirts reading “keep country country,” and cheered each other on as they spoke against the project.
State Sen. Brenton Awa, who represents Hale‘iwa, called the project a “land flip” by investors who had purchased agricultural land and sat on it until they could get it rezoned and thereby increase its value.
Awa mentioned the Ho‘opili housing development in West O‘ahu, which was similarly built on formerly ag-zoned land. Previously, he said, that land was valued at $100,000 to $150,000 per acre, but after the rezone, “that one acre, you can fit about 20 homes in it and each of those homes are almost $1 million.
“What you get is generation wealth for investors and unaffordable housing for the rest of us,” Awa continued.
Barb Luke-Boe said the proposed development fails on three levels: safety, capacity and agriculture.
On the first level, Luke-Boe said last week’s tsunami alert was acutely felt in Hale‘iwa, where traffic ground to a standstill as people attempted to flee the inundation zone. Several testifiers said they took hours to travel no more than a five-minute drive, and that an additional 150 units will pack the streets even more.
By the same token, Luke-Boe and others said the town’s infrastructure — including its roads and wastewater treatment — are insufficient to the task of accommodating another 150 households.
And as for agriculture, Luke-Boe said Hawai‘i needs as much agricultural land as it can keep if it is to meet the mandates set by the 2021 Farm to School Program Bill, which requires that 30% of all food served in public schools consist of locally sourced products by 2030.
Resident Denise Antolini added that she believes the proposal is based on insufficient data. A traffic study used for the project, she said, is 10 years old and does not reflect the current state of the area.
“If you vote yes, it is a moment in history that cannot be reversed,” Antolini told the Council, a point that many other testifiers echoed.
Following public testimony, Council member Esther Kia‘āina — who represents Waimānalo, Kāne‘ohe, Kailua and other communities in northeast O‘ahu — moved to defer action on the proposal and send it back to the Council Committee on Zoning and Planning for further discussion.
Dawn Apuna, Director of the County Department of Planning and Permitting, told Kia‘āina that DPP could explore the possibility of acquiring the land for the city to determine a more appropriate use for it.
The Council voted unanimously to defer the proposal.
“I think it’s historic,” Antolini later told Aloha State Daily. “We were on the precipice of an irreversible land use change. We were on the precipice of an urban future for this historic plantation land.”
Antolini acknowledged that the conflict has not ended, but hoped that Council’s willingness to pause and listen to community outcry will “provide a new pathway for new collaboration.”
No representative of Hale‘iwa Backyards LLC spoke at the meeting.
