A university campus in Mililani.
A marina in Ewa Beach.
An agricultural park in Royal Kunia.
None of these things exist, but they were once offered up as public benefits for master-planned communities being built on Oahu.
Developers convinced the state Land Use Commission that such benefits — together with other factors — outweighed negative impacts such as the loss of farmland and additional traffic.
Presently, two giant housing projects proposed for farmland on Oahu are before the LUC: Ho‘opili with 11,750 homes in Ewa, and Koa Ridge with 5,000 homes in Central Oahu. These plans also include highly promoted and unique public benefit components: a medical campus at Koa Ridge and urban farms at Ho‘opili.
Opponents have questioned whether these two elements will be realized if Koa Ridge and Ho‘opili are approved.
Past experience shows there are no guarantees big pieces of a planned community will be delivered.
Planning experts say unanticipated changes are a reality for master-planned projects that can take more than a decade to build.
The principal issue decided by the LUC is whether a piece of land, often farmland, is acceptable for urban development. Factors that go into that decision include the need to accommodate a growing population with housing and whether a site is adjacent to other urban areas.
Some contend that a specified amount of homes and commercial space on a particular site either is or isn’t right. But developers often present specific ideas as public benefits to make a project more attractive and garner support.
At Koa Ridge, developer Castle & Cooke Hawaii considers a planned 28-acre medical campus to be an integral part of its plan, providing improved health care services and jobs for Central Oahu.
The Wahiawa Hospital Association, parent of Wahiawa General Hospital, is responsible for developing medical facilities at Koa Ridge. Hospital officials have told the LUC that its plan includes 100 to 120 acute-care beds, 100 to 150 skilled-nursing beds, a 24-hour emergency room, medical offices and jobs for about 1,100 people at an average annual wage of $60,000.
At a February LUC hearing, Bryan Yee, an attorney for the state Office of Planning, asked Wahiawa General CEO Don Olden about the likelihood of the Koa Ridge medical complex being built.
Olden gave no guarantee, but said the hospital has invested several million dollars in a feasibility study suggesting the plan can become a reality.
Bruce Barrett, executive vice president of residential operations for Castle & Cooke, said in an interview he has "a high confidence level" that the medical campus will be successful. "We vetted their plan," he said, "but we can’t predict the future. Master-planning is what it is. It’s planning."
Castle & Cooke has an agreement to convey 28 acres at no cost to Wahiawa Hospital with a caveat that the land reverts to the developer if the nonprofit can’t fulfill its plan.
Carleton Ching, a Castle & Cooke spokesman, said the company tries its best to fulfill conceptual plans as envisioned, but factors beyond its control sometimes come into play.
For example, when the LUC approved plans for Mililani Mauka in 1988, the project by Castle & Cooke envisioned a 75-acre campus for the University of Hawaii. But UH later turned down the idea in favor of a West Oahu campus.
A 150-acre retirement community also was part of the Mililani Mauka plan considered by the LUC. That idea also wasn’t realized, though a roughly 300-unit townhouse condominium complex for seniors called Olaloa was built in 1992, and a 72-unit assisted-living complex called Plaza at Mililani was built in 2010.
At Ho‘opili, developer D.R. Horton last year introduced a new concept, urban farms, that addressed a lack of support by the state Department of Agriculture during prior LUC hearings that stymied the project in 2009.
The concept includes 251 acres for farming within Ho‘opili, including 159 acres for commercial farms largely on the fringes of the community, 84 acres for gardens in the yards of single-family homes and eight acres for community gardens.
Texas-based Horton, through its local Schuler Division, has run commercials promoting its urban farm plan pitched by consultant and well-known local farmer Dean Okimoto.
The Agriculture Department endorsed Ho‘opili in the pending LUC case. Critics, however, call the plan a nice idea that will result in little farming.
"It is absolute fantasy," said Eric Seitz, an attorney representing Ho‘opili challenger and state Sen. Clayton Hee.
Glenn Martinez, who owns Waimanalo organic farm Olomana Gardens and sells raised beds for backyard gardening, said he would expect 1 out of 100 homeowners to engage in growing their own food, suggesting that only 8.4 acres of 84 acres for such use will be utilized.
Other Ho‘opili opponents have said Schuler designated land that’s least suitable for farming as the 159 acres for commercial farming.
Schuler officials said the land it selected is still good for farming, and that if the Agriculture Department deems any site unsuitable, then it will substitute other acceptable land for commercial farming.
To bolster its contention, Schuler announced in February that Ho Farms, a grower of specialty tomatoes and other vegetables in Kahuku, signed a letter of intent to lease 18 acres largely comprising a gulch on the Ho‘opili site.
A conceptual site plan for Ho Farms shows areas for fruit trees, field farming, greenhouses and a processing plant, with the gulch’s sides buffering surrounding residential development. The Ho Farms deal remains tentative, and lease terms haven’t been disclosed.
The Agriculture Department said it has received enough assurance from Schuler that it will carry out its urban farm plan. The developer is proposing that LUC approval be conditional on its delivery of farmable land for residents and commercial farms.
Still, observers wonder how Schuler’s efforts, even if they are in good faith and conditioned on LUC approval, can ensure that significant amounts of food will be produced on the Ho‘opili site.
Yee, the Office of Planning attorney, pressed Schuler representatives testifying at the LUC on the difference between having a plan for urban agriculture and having urban agriculture.
Schuler representatives explained that they can’t provide guarantees. "This is our intent," Tim Van Meter, a consultant who produced Ho‘opili’s urban agriculture plan, repeatedly answered.
"Wouldn’t that just be another way of saying, ‘Trust me’?" Yee asked.
Some Ho‘opili and Koa Ridge opponents point to what happened with Ocean Pointe/Hoakalei Resort when developer Haseko Hawaii announced last year — 22 years after it received LUC approval for development — that the viability had disappeared for building a marina long touted as a central feature and public benefit for its 4,850-home community.
The marina was promoted as an economic magnet attracting maritime industry businesses and international boat races. Other public benefits included badly desired boat ramps in Ewa Beach, and the possibility that the marina could serve as a commuter ferry terminal.
In October, Haseko announced its intention to transform a basin, which is finished, into a recreational lagoon that it argues will be a greater public benefit because of broader use. A marina, it said, would take longer to build and attract far less use than was forecast 20 years ago.
Haseko needs government approvals for its lagoon plan, but the LUC didn’t condition its approval of Haseko’s urban development on the marina.
Even in cases where a described public benefit is a condition of LUC approval, delivery can be uncertain. That’s the case with a 150-acre agricultural park at the second phase of Royal Kunia.
Halekua Development Corp., led by the late Herbert Horita, won LUC approval for the project slated for 2,000 homes in 1993. As part of the deal, the state was supposed to receive 150 acres of the site’s good farmland connected to infrastructure such as roads, electricity and water so it could lease the land to 25 or so farmers at attractive rates.
But financial troubles including bankruptcy set the plan back. Halekua, in partnership with another local developer, Stanford Carr, reacquired the project in 2007 but has yet to carry out its part of the ag park deal.
In 2008 then-Gov. Linda Lingle announced that the ag park plan was advancing with the release of $250,000 for design work.
Instead, the money went to pay for an environmental assessment. The department since has asked the Legislature for $1 million to design the park, but that money hasn’t been provided. Even if it is provided, it would cost another $25 million to create the park, the department estimates.
Another piece of Royal Kunia II was supposed to be a golf course that Halekua told the LUC was needed to help address a projected shortfall of 14 to 49 golf courses by 2010.
A Japanese company that acquired the land failed to develop the golf course, and sold the 172-acre property for $3 million in 2005 to a California developer who floated ideas to build homes on the site.
