Recently, the Honolulu City Council voted 9-0 to pass Bill 65 (2012), allowing the long‐awaited update of the Ewa Development Plan to move forward.
The plan was first adopted by the city in 1997 as a way to manage growth and stimulate the economy while protecting Hawaii’s unique environment and way of life.
We have had the opportunity to watch West Oahu grow over the last 10 years as billions of dollars have been invested in infrastructure, housing and business development. Thanks to the Honolulu City Council’s foresight, Kapolei is on its way to becoming the economic center we have long anticipated.
The city of Kapolei is rapidly expanding as the area’s primary job center and, along with the rest of the Secondary Urban Center in Kapolei, is poised to continue its expansion of major employment and residential areas.
The University of Hawaii‐West Oahu campus, Salvation Army Ray and Joan Kroc Corps Community Center, the Department of Hawaiian Homelands, Kalaeloa, and other East Kapolei residential communities are bringing more jobs and homes as well. We cannot afford to lose momentum.
There are approximately 36,000 jobs and more than 800 businesses in the Ewa Development Plan area today. This represents a doubling of the jobs available when the plan was last updated, in 1997. The provision of public services, resources and infrastructure within the Secondary Urban Center that has been a goal of the plan since its inception is coming to fruition.
The jobs projections for the coming years speak even more strongly in favor of the path the Honolulu City Council put forth through the Ewa Development Plan. By 2030, employers in the region are expected to have created well over 100,000 jobs, providing job opportunities for more than 80 percent of its rapidly expanding working-age population. This can happen only with increased public and private investment in the Secondary Urban Center and the larger region, including the continued provision of government services, resources and infrastructure as called for in Oahu’s General Plan and the companion Ewa Development Plan.
Hawaii should be a place where our Hawaii-born college students look forward to returning.
Young professionals are deterred by a tough job market and the bleak prospect of waiting until they’ve earned their first million to buy a home in a real estate market where low inventory has pushed home prices sky‐high. The Ewa Development Plan is just one small step toward addressing our real estate inventory shortage. Our children need homes they can afford and job opportunities closer to home. New housing is a necessary precursor to commercial and job creation in any given region — especially here on Oahu, where it has long seen housing in short supply. Job growth in Kapolei will continue to be promoted by the goals and objectives of the Ewa Development Plan.
The Ewa Development Plan will provide the economic boost that will help Hawaii hold its own with the rest of the nation. The region is already home to the state’s second busiest commercial harbor, the state’s largest industrial park, Oahu’s premier resort destination and the state’s single largest development area.
The Ewa Development Plan balances the needs of many — from local workers in need of jobs to young families looking for homeownership opportunities.
The plan is built on a vision of the future that offers a new type of lifestyle — where bikes and buses are more prevalent than cars, and where parents spend more time mediating dinner table conversations, rather than battling traffic. That’s a future we should all support.
