A controversial Hale‘iwa housing development is once again under consideration by the Honolulu City Council.
Last August, the Council indefinitely postponed action on a proposal to build a 150-unit affordable housing project on a 7.5-acre parcel along the Joseph P. Leong Highway, after substantial public outcry about the project’s potential impact to the surrounding agricultural community.
On Thursday, that indefinite postponement ended, with the Council Committee on Zoning and Planning ultimately moving to forward the proposal to the full Council for final approval.
The proposal itself is a request for a boundary amendment that will reclassify the parcel — called the Hale‘iwa Quadrangle — from the Agricultural District to the Urban District, a change that will allow for the development of higher-density housing.
The project itself is the brainchild of a company called Hale‘iwa Backyards LLC, which has proposed to offer about 150 two-bedroom units, 30% of which would be offered at affordable rental rates, with the remaining 70% offered at market rental rates. The company’s most recent projections, made in 2025, would put the monthly rent for a unit available for people making up to 80% of the area median income at $2,500.
During the Council’s consideration of the project last year, the Honolulu Department of Housing and Land Management considered the possibility of the County acquiring the property directly as an alternative to the Hale‘iwa Backyards proposal. In February, DHLM concluded following a preliminary review that such an acquisition would not fit into the City and County’s current financial priorities, but supported the development of housing within the Quadrangle.
But hundreds of residents testified in opposition to the project Thursday, reiterating criticisms of the proposal they’ve had for years: that it will overwhelm traffic infrastructure, that it removes potential agricultural land from the state, that it will not “keep country country.”
“This project would increase Hale‘iwa’s population and place additional strain on our roads and infrastructure, worsening the very challenges we are seeking to address through our disaster planning in an emergency,” said Cheryl Matsumoto, a member of the Waialua Community Association’s Health and Disaster Preparedness Committee. “Limited evacuation capacity can have serious consequences.”
Other residents said that there is insufficient space in the area for the roads to be expanded to allow for more traffic.
Franz Kraintz, chief of the County Department of Planning and Permitting acknowledged that increasing the amount of traffic infrastructure in the area to prevent delays would require “massive amounts of money, massive amounts of construction” and would be self-defeating: “we don’t want to build more roads because it encourages more traffic,” he told the committee Thursday.
Kraintz said DPP’s preference is to promote “alternative modes of travel,” such as public transit or biking infrastructure. But, he added that the project “has the potential to add [traffic] volume,” but is “not an absolute.”
Some Council members were critical of the project. ‘Ewa Beach Councilwoman Andria Tupola noted that the Council has heard hundreds of testimonials in opposition to the project, since last year, and yet the project has not meaningfully changed.
“When you have thousands of people in the community talking to you and you’re listening to what they’re saying … what are we supposed to say to them?” Tupola said. “’We heard all 2,000 of your voices, but we decided on no changes?’”
A representative of the property owner, Ikaika Anderson, spoke briefly at Thursday’s meeting, but only to confirm — in answer to a question by Committee Chair Ester Kia‘āina — that the property owner would not be willing to sell the parcel to the city.
The matter was forwarded to the full Council to once again discuss the proposal at third and final reading.
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