Hawaii Reserves Inc. has scrapped its contentious plan to put up houses in rural Malaekahana and is instead proposing a scaled-down project allowing for 300 additional residential units within the Laie ahupuaa.
But the new plan is also meeting with skepticism and resistance from those in surrounding communities who worry the new development would destroy the area’s rural nature and overburden the roads, sewer capacity and other infrastructure.
HRI’s supporters say more housing, and affordable housing in particular, is badly needed for the families who live, work and play in Laie.
HRI manages Brigham Young University-Hawaii and the Polynesian Cultural Center — which form Laie’s geographical and cultural hub — for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Eric Beaver, HRI president and CEO, publicly unveiled the revised plan to the City Council Planning Committee at a standing-room-only meeting at Hauula Elementary School on Nov. 29.
As with its aborted project, HRI will need its revised proposal to be included under an expanded urban boundary in the Koolauloa Sustainable Communities Plan to proceed.
The current version of the Koolauloa SCP, contained in Bill 1, is opposed by HRI and its supporters because it does not include any new development for the region.
At the end of the Nov. 29 meeting, Council Planning Chairman Ikaika Anderson said he wants to give Council members, the city Department of Planning and Permitting, and the community time to study HRI’s proposal and then have Bill 1 taken up again in February.
HRI’s previous Envision Laie proposal called for development of 300 acres in Malaekahana primarily for housing, but also some commercial/business use. HRI opponents have successfully thwarted that plan, arguing that most of the Malaekahana ahupuaa is now in ranching or other agricultural use.
Beaver has said the company now wants a change to the Koolauloa SCP that would allow 300 units — 250 in North Laie and 50 on the existing BYUH campus. Plans for new retail designation have been nixed.
All of the area HRI proposes for housing is within the Laie ahupuaa, although part appears to abut the Malaekahana border. The area is also set back from Kamehameha Highway by about 330 yards, Beaver said, “leaving the flat pastureland along the highway undeveloped.”
Beaver said the existing urban growth boundary in the current Koolauloa SCP allows for 550 housing units behind BYUH, and HRI would have preferred the city simply shift that allowable maximum amount to Laie’s northern boundary.
Calling the need for new homes the biggest issue facing Laie, Beaver argues that the larger number of units would mean more affordable homes available for area residents. The 300-unit proposal is a compromise and an acknowledgement of the previous opposition, he said.
Beaver said in response to written questions from the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that HRI’s latest proposal would add about 55 acres into the urban growth boundary. The 550 units it now is allowed to build is designated for about 150 acres, he said.
The current alignment, while allowing a bigger area for housing, is on the BYUH campus and not envisioned for the general public, Beaver said. “Preliminary studies have indicated that these locations are (unfeasible) for affordable housing. In addition, building housing adjacent to the university would restrict its ability to grow in the future.”
How many of the new homes would be single-family houses and multifamily townhouses or apartments has not yet been determined, Beaver said. HRI expects to abide by the city’s affordable housing rules, which currently require no less than 30 percent be made available to those making up to 140 percent of median household income, although city leaders are contemplating upping the requirements.
Ben Shafer, a member of both the Kahana Planning Council and Defend Oahu Coalition, said Friday that he supports new housing — but only if the homes are aimed at and affordable for existing Laie residents.
“Because if you’re going to bring in outside people, that’s not going to help anything,” Shafer said.
Shafer also scoffed at the suggestion that the new plan does not encroach into Malaekahana. Even if it’s technically within the Laie ahupuaa, it abuts Malaekahana, he said. “On the one side of the street it’s Laie, on the other side it’s Malaekahana.”
Margaret Primacio, Defend Oahu Coalition president and a Kahuku resident, said even if the bulk of the homes are in Laie, HRI is seeking an expansion of the urban growth boundary for the plan that would result in less agricultural land.
If a majority of the new homes will be market-priced, that won’t make too big an impact for the many Laie residents in need of housing, Primacio said.
A majority of the more than 50 people who testified Nov. 29 said they support leaving the bill as is with no additional houses. But about one out of every four or five testifiers offered support to HRI, and most came from within Laie.
Laie resident Arapata Meha said with median home prices approaching $800,000, many younger people are being forced to live on the mainland. His own family is facing that reality, he said.
“My wife and I have two married sons who were educated here and live on the mainland,” Meha said. “They want to come home and raise their families in Koolauloa.”
Pani Meatoga Jr., president of the Laie Community Association, said he’s unhappy with HRI’s newest proposal because it would mean fewer homes than what’s now allowed. “That’s not going to meet the main need of the community, which is affordable housing,” Meatoga said.
