Oahu Democrats voted Saturday not to censure state Sen. Donovan Dela Cruz for sponsoring a bill that would have allowed counties to create unique planning districts around bus and rail stations.

Environmentalists within the party had complained that the bill was contrary to the party’s platform of sustaining the environment. A party investigative committee had recommended that Dela Cruz be censured, but at a private meeting on Saturday at the party’s headquarters at Ward Warehouse, Oahu Democrats voted 25-6 against censure.

Dela Cruz (D, Kaena-Wahiawa-Pupukea), the chairman of the Senate Water, Land and Housing Committee, said the bill would have helped guide development in Honolulu’s urban core and protect agriculture and open space by discouraging sprawl. But a coalition of environmentalists, progressives and Republicans fought the bill at the state Legislature, warning that it contained exemptions from zoning standards that were too permissive and 45-day time limits on project review that could lock the public out of the planning process. The bill died on the last day of the session in May.

"It was no harm, no foul, no action further to be taken," Tony Gill, the chairman of Oahu Democrats, said after the vote. "He has been exonerated in all respects and that’s the decision of the body."

The complaint against Dela Cruz was an example of the disappointment from the environmental and progressive wings of the party with Gov. Neil Abercrombie and majority Democrats at the Legislature, whom some activists say are too eager for development. The coalition that fought Dela Cruz’s transit-oriented development bill has also attacked the senator for his support of the Public Land Development Corp., the development arm of the state Department of Land and Natural Resources.

But many within the party worried privately that the complaint could have a chilling effect on lawmakers, who might be reluctant to propose new ideas for fear of being shouted down.

The overwhelming vote against censuring Dela Cruz, some say privately, may have a calming influence.

"I want to thank the committee for allowing everybody an equal opportunity to participate," said Dela Cruz, who addressed Oahu Democrats at the private meeting on Saturday along with Lynn Sager, the environmental activist who had filed the complaint.

"At this point, we can agree to disagree with the complainant," he said. "But I think we all, at the end of the day, want to make Hawaii better. And it’s good to see that even within our party, we can have some discord that hopefully results in a better Hawaii and a more unified front, especially coming up to the general election."

A political party punishing elected officials for their policy work at the Legislature is rare. Democrats reprimanded state Sen. Mike Gabbard (D, Waikele-Ko Olina) in 2009 for actively opposing a civil-unions bill and undermining the party’s platform on equality and civil rights.