The Honolulu City Council has adopted two related measures to expand transit-oriented development and rezone 227 acres around Skyline’s Halawa station and the shuttered Aloha Stadium.
The action paves the way for future development of mixed-use business, residential and affordable housing sites near the state’s planned New Aloha Stadium Entertainment District.
The Council’s unanimous Dec. 6 votes on Bill 50, to expand TOD in that area, and Bill 51, aiming to rezone the same spot, allows the city Department of Planning and Permitting to better implement the Halawa TOD Plan, the city says.
Tim Streitz, DPP’s acting administrator for its TOD division, previously told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that the zoning changes are not directly related to any particular project, “although they would support the state’s New Aloha Stadium Entertainment District, or NASED, and Puuwai Momi public housing developments currently being planned in portions of the TOD area,” Streitz said via email.
“Both of these large developments are also planned to include new affordable housing.”
The Halawa TOD Plan envisions dense, mixed-use development with a central gateway connecting the rail station to the future stadium, he added.
In particular, NASED’s proposed 25,000- to 30,000-seat, multi-use stadium would be surrounded by mixed-use retail development on the existing 98-acre site.
Gov. Josh Green’s administration has stated the price tag for the new stadium — smaller than the old stadium’s 50,000 seats — is pegged at approximately $400 million.
Under a project slated to begin construction by late 2025 or early 2026 and that could reportedly take many years to complete, the state says it expects more than 20% of residential housing at NASED would be affordable housing, while approximately 70% is deemed workforce housing.
“The future neighborhood characteristics will be largely influenced by the state’s NASED project on the Aloha Stadium site because it encompasses such a large portion of the TOD area,” Streitz said previously. “The city worked closely with the state on the Halawa TOD Plan, and the state’s NASED project is expected to be generally consistent with the TOD Plan, although certain details of the actual developments may differ.”
The vision of a compact, mixed-use, walkable neighborhood was recommended for the Halawa station area in the TOD Plan, adopted by the city Council in 2020. It is also part of the city’s overall strategy to manage and direct future urban growth, particularly in West Oahu.
“The Office of Planning and Sustainable Development strongly supports Bill 50 and 51 to expand the TOD Special District around the Halawa Skyline station, as amended by Council Zoning Committee,” Harrison Rue, representing the state agency, said Nov. 28 in submitted written testimony. “We have worked closely with City staff and other state agencies to ensure that it meets City and State goals for TOD and housing production.”
But others oppose Halawa-area changes.
During the Planning Commission’s July 26 public hearing on the measures, several testifiers objected to potential negative impacts development might have on ancient, historically significant and even sacred Native Hawaiian sites as well as natural resources in areas near Halawa Valley and Aiea.
“The Halawa TOD plan is different,” resident Kahaulani Lum told the commission. “It proposes to alter the landscape once honored by Native priests and high chiefs in a way that has almost nothing to do with their culture.”
Lum added that “while some may feel this way of life is ancient history, the community of Aiea recognized over a quarter of a century ago the importance of saving the brilliance of Ewa’s abundant past.”
For Lum, that important past includes the more than 400-year-old Paaiau Fishpond, on the edge of Pearl Harbor near McGrew Point.
“Paaiau is a state historical registered site,” she said, adding that the fishpond was not represented within the city’s Halawa TOD Plan. “We respectfully request that the plan protect this cultural treasure and all Native Hawaiian traditional cultural sites within its realm.”
At the same meeting, DPP’s Streitz said as far as the Paaiau Fishpond was concerned, the historical site lay outside of the Halawa TOD Plan.
“I believe the fishpond you’re referring to is over on the other side of Aiea Bay,” Streitz said in response to Lum’s concerns. “And that was not in the plan.”
He added most of the Halawa TOD Plan was within “walking distance to the rail station.”
Still, Streitz said this zoning change “does present a unique opportunity through the community bonus program, which allows for developers to get additional height or density for what they currently have in exchange for community benefits.”
He added that those benefits could “really enhance the cultural and historic nature of the area and try to tie that in better to the TOD area.”
