Community pushback against senior rental projects in residential areas is nothing new. One particularly strenuous fight occurred more than a decade ago over Mililani’s Meheula Vista complex, located on a site that some neighbors said they wanted for a performing arts center. Other complaints involved traffic worries, and a change that limited the number of tenants with a car helped to address that. The project finally opened in 2017.

The battle already rumbling over the proposed Manoa Banyan Court affordable-rental project for seniors is another such case. And here again, there should be a way to allow for more affordable units to be built, given the critical need for them.

However, it will take a lot of careful vetting of some legitimate community concerns and enforceable conditions placed on the project to ensure that compromises and assurances are respected.

Among the biggest hurdles to overcome here? A general lack of trust between the vocal opponents of the 288-unit complex and the landowners, the Manoa Chinese Cemetery. The cemetery is adjacent to the site for the four phases of the development, which would sit on roughly 8 acres of the wooded property.

Both cemetery and project site are owned by the nonprofit Lin Yee Chung Association, which has filed a draft environmental assessment (EA) on the development with the city Department of Planning and Permitting. According to a Dec. 12 cover letter, department officials “anticipate a finding of no significant impact” from the project.

Public comments on the EA will be taken through Jan. 23; comments should be emailed to zachary.stoddard@honolulu.gov. The document is online (808ne.ws/ManoaBanyanCourt), with a paper copy viewable at Manoa Public Library.

The public response is sure to be voluminous. Kealii Lopez, AARP state director, acknowledged that the organization has not taken an official stance on this project but, rightly, is generally concerned about community opposition.

“We all want seniors to age in place,” she said, “But first they need a place.”

Among the critics is Lance Luke, a former trustee of the cemetery who said the adjacent property always has been intended for use to expand the cemetery itself.

In a telephone interview with the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, Luke also said the EA does not sufficiently examine the possible presence of ancestral Hawaiian remains on the site. It cites a historical review showing the likelihood that the area was cultivated in taro, which makes it “very unlikely” traditional burial sites would be there. But Luke opined that a full environmental impact statement should be done. This, of course, would delay the project, at the very least.

Part of the project site is preservation land but it would be built under a state law, 201H-38, which provides an exemption for affordable housing, regardless of that zoning.

Charles Wong, president of the cemetery association, has countered that opponents’ true issue is a bias against lower-income people moving into an affluent neighborhood, “because the rich people don’t want to live next to the poor people.”

That blanket assertion is patently unfair. Neighbors have reasonably raised concerns about runoff, traffic and the loss of forested area, and after review, there should be conditions set to soften any impact on the community.

That said, there is a real state interest in creating affordable homes for seniors. According to the state’s 2020-2030 “Hawaii Housing Demand” report, elders account for 13% of the state’s total housing shortfall. That’s up from 9% in 2016.

Manoa Banyan Court, if done properly, could be a model for how some of that deficit could be erased.