{"id":10140,"date":"2017-12-30T23:53:14","date_gmt":"2017-12-30T23:53:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.environment-hawaii.org\/?p=10140"},"modified":"2017-12-30T23:53:14","modified_gmt":"2017-12-30T23:53:14","slug":"panel-defers-koolau-loa-plan-vote-to-discuss-easements-for-malaekahana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/?p=10140","title":{"rendered":"Panel Defers Ko\u2018olau Loa Plan Vote To Discuss Easements for Malaekahana"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Malaekahana, O`ahu. Credit: Leslie Kuba<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At the November 29 meeting in Hau\u2018ula of the Honolulu City Council\u2019s Committee on Transportation and Planning, Hawai\u2018i Reserves, Inc. (HRI), the local land management arm of the Mormon church, unveiled a new, drastically downsized housing plan to relieve at least some of the rampant overcrowding in La\u2018ie. Whether it will \u2014 if ever built out \u2014 actually achieve that goal remains to be seen.<\/p>\n

Gone is the proposed workforce housing, which was part of the original Envision La\u2018ie plan floated by HRI several years ago and incorporated by the Department of Planning and Permitting into its draft of the Ko\u2018olau Loa Sustainable Communities Plan (KLSCP) update. Instead of adding hundreds of affordable units, HRI manager Eric Beaver estimated that fewer than 100 would be built under the new plan, that is if the city\u2019s affordable housing ordinances remained unchanged.<\/p>\n

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Most of the 300 proposed new units would be sold at market rates and all of them would be built in La\u2018ie, he said.<\/p>\n

Beaver testified that the new plan was meant to be a compromise to address concerns raised by the community \u2014 about increased traffic, a lack of infrastructure, and the loss of agricultural land and open space \u2014 ever since the DPP released its version of the KLSCP in 2012.<\/p>\n

The Envision La\u2018ie plan included at least 875 new housing units on 300 acres of ranch land in Malaekahana, as well as a new school and commercial development.<\/p>\n

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Seeking to address the concerns raised, Beaver said HRI met with city council members and their staff, as well as community leaders Dee Dee Letts, Tim Vanderveer, and Ben Schafer, who toured La\u2018ie with him to explore possible housing alternatives, including increased density.<\/p>\n

HRI currently has the ability under the current KLSCP (approved in 1999) to build 550 units behind the Brigham Young University-Hawai\u2018i campus. However, Beaver said the company would rather not pursue that option. Instead, HRI proposes to build 250 units on land in north La\u2018ie directly adjacent to Malaekahana. The remaining 50 units would be built on the sprawling BYUH campus.<\/p>\n

The north La\u2018ie houses would be set back more than 300 yards off Kamehameha Highway and be partly tucked behind ridges to protect viewplanes, he said.<\/p>\n

No retail is being proposed, and \u201cat this smaller number of units, the workforce leasehold housing … is not feasible,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

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Given that some of the lands HRI wants to develop fall outside of the community growth boundary in the current KLSCP, as well as the version proposed last January by council member Ikaika Anderson in Bill 1, Beaver said he opposed the bill\u2019s adoption. Bill 1 does not designate any more lands for housing, which is \u201cour community\u2019s greatest need,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Should the bill be amended to accommodate HRI\u2019s new proposal, Beaver estimated that under existing laws, 30 percent of the 300 units would need to be affordable.<\/p>\n

\u201cNinety units, potentially, and 210 would be market?\u201d Martin asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe goal would be to maximize the number of affordable units. Whatever is possible is what we would work to do,\u201d Beaver replied.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd the affordable units would be marketed to those earning 140 percent of the median income or less,\u201d Anderson asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s my understanding,\u201d Beaver replied.<\/p>\n

During public testimony, most attendees urged the council members to go ahead and approve Bill 1 unamended, regardless of HRI\u2019s attempt at a compromise. Several of them argued that the city could free up more housing if it cracked down on the rampant illegal vacation rentals throughout the region.<\/p>\n

Hau\u2018ula resident Maureen Malanaphy pointed out that the lack of adequate housing is an island-wide issue. One solution would be to reduce the glut of vacation rentals, she said, adding that she sees a lot of tourists, as well as BYU students, in her neighborhood these days.<\/p>\n

More development was not the answer, she suggested. \u201cI don\u2019t want to look around … like Kailua and the North Shore and say, \u2018What happened? What happened?\u2019 Because once it\u2019s gone, it\u2019s gone,\u201d Malanaphy said.<\/p>\n

BYU teacher Rebecca Walker, also a Hau\u2018ula resident, echoed her sentiments.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think we have the right solution for what the real problem is \u2014 over 1,000 illegal vacation rentals in Ko\u2018olau Loa. And that\u2019s only those on Airbnb,\u201d she said. And given that so many homes are being rented to tourists, she asked, \u201cHow do we guarantee our friends [who have left the area, but want to return] that they\u2019re going to be guaranteed these homes? Ninety of 300 homes would be affordable,\u201d she said of HRI\u2019s new plan.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to clean our house first before we can move forward,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Some of those opposed to HRI\u2019s development proposals at the meeting were actually Mormon church members. Christopher Milsteen of La\u2018ie identified himself as an LDS [Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints] member and offered his support for Bill 1.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cI\u2019ve seen what the church has done in Utah with development projects and I don\u2019t want to see that here. I want to see the natural places preserved. I want to see a true compromise from HRI. I don\u2019t think this is a true Christian compromise,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

North Shore resident Larry McElheny began his testimony by displaying blown-up photos of the verdant, relatively untouched Kahana Valley a few minutes south of La\u2018ie and calling the region\u2019s natural resources \u201csome of the most beautiful anywhere on the planet.\u201d He then held up another photo showing the church\u2019s recently expanded Polynesian Cultural Center (PCC) in La\u2018ie.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard for me to say this. When we\u2019re talking about the entities we\u2019re dealing with \u2014 HRI, PCC, BYU \u2014 I just can\u2019t trust these people. How can they think that what\u2019s happening at PCC is compatible with our ecological treasure? They\u2019ve basically put an amusement park in the middle of it. I can see their vision. … It\u2019s just very, very troubling,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Finally, McElheny questioned whether the decision-makers in Salt Lake City were aware of the prognosis for Kamehameha Highway, where waves regularly overtop the road. \u201cDOT [Department of Transportation] puts rocks and they wash away,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

While most of the testimony that night came from people opposed to more development in the region (due, according to some, to coincidental Christmas festivities that kept many Bill 1 opponents away), several others urged the committee to amend Bill 1 to allow some additional housing.<\/p>\n

La\u2018ie\u2019s Elizabeth Logan Levy, for one, testified that she has friends and family on both sides of the issue and admitted that there were no easy solutions to the housing crisis. But, she said, it\u2019s the people, not just the area\u2019s natural beauty, \u201cthat make this place special. … Yes, we should take measures to protect it [but also] make sure people have opportunities to stay.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Crying Wolf?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

BYUH president John Tanner also asked the committee to consider adding more housing opportunities in the area. \u201cWe want employees to stay here. They\u2019re living on top of each other,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Then he said something that seemed to contradict arguments university representatives made in the past to coerce the city to support of the level of development proposed in the Envision La\u2018ie plan.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have plans to grow the university in a major way at all,\u201d he said, noting that current enrollment is about 2,900 and the school\u2019s board of directors have capped it at 3,200.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce the cap is met, can the board increase it?\u201d asked Anderson.<\/p>\n

Tapper said it could, \u201cbut small is beautiful [and] it\u2019s very expensive to be educated here and there isn\u2019t housing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reason I asked is, this council has heard before in the past that there have been discussions, 25, 30 years out, plans to increase campus size to 5,000,\u201d Anderson said.<\/p>\n

Tapper, who has been the university\u2019s president just since 2015, said that there have been no discussions or plans for that. \u201cThe cap is 3,200,\u201d he reiterated.<\/p>\n

DPP head Kathy Sokugawa later testified that BYUH representatives have, indeed, changed their tune with regard to its needs for additional student housing. Back when the KLSCP update was being drafted, \u201cBYU specifically told us if they did not grow, they would have to relocate out of La\u2018ie. Now they say they have a cap of 3,200. They told us they wanted an expansion to 5,000,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re saying in 2009, 2010, BYU had explained to the community that they planned to increase their enrollment to 5,000?\u201d Anderson asked Sokugawa.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe that was public knowledge,\u201d she replied, adding that the 5,000-students projection is included in the DPP\u2019s draft bill on the KLSCP that went to City Council.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen 5,000 was presented to a committee, was it presented as a final number?\u201d Anderson asked.<\/p>\n

\u201c[It was] just a planning horizon for the long-term viability of the campus. How it jibes with the administrative cap, that was not explained to us,\u201d Sokugawa said.<\/p>\n

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An Easement<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Whatever the housing needs of BYUH \u2014 or Ko\u2018olau Loa in general \u2014 actually are,<\/p>\n

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council member Ernie Martin, who represents the area, has proposed that the agricultural lands at Malaekahana be protected by means of a conservation easement. This despite the facts that 1) Bill 1, if approved unamended, would bar urban development there and 2), HRI just announced it has no plans (at least not right now), to build there. Martin said an easement would protect the land in perpetuity, regardless of whether the church sold its lands at Malaekahana.<\/p>\n

Before the meeting, Martin had proposed an amendment to Bill 1 to place the lands at Malaekahana under some sort of protection. At the meeting, he clarified that that protection would come in the form of a conservation easement, adding that he said he hoped HRI would be willing to enter into one.<\/p>\n

Beaver said he was open to discussing the matter.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The committee ultimately deferred action on Bill 1 and on Martin\u2019s amendment so that HRI, Martin, and Anderson could further discuss options to preserve Malaekahana.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cI would like to have a decision on this rendered in February. One way or the other, going forward with an amendment or no amendment,\u201d Anderson said.<\/p>\n

With regard to HRI\u2019s new development plan, council member Ron Menor said he was skeptical that the affordable housing would be truly affordable under the city\u2019s current standards. He said the council needed to take a much closer look at its affordable housing requirement.<\/p>\n

At present, a house that\u2019s affordable to someone making 140 percent of the island\u2019s income is considered affordable. \u201cThat\u2019s $700,000. That\u2019s not affordable, that\u2019s market housing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Council member Joey Manahan added that adequate infrastructure must also be provided to meet the needs of any future development.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cAs somebody who represents the urban core, we\u2019re playing catch-up [with regard to infrastructure, particularly sewage systems]. It\u2019s really quite difficult. If you\u2019re going to ask me to move the growth boundary, what I would like to know is what kind of infrastructure improvements are we going to need,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo build nothing is also not a solution. We did that in the urban core and we\u2019re really struggling,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

(For more background on this issue, see our May 2013 cover story and \u201cCommittee Tables Malaekahana Development, City Council Chair Awaits a New General Plan,\u201d from our April 2015 issue. Both and more are available at environment-hawaii.org.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u2014\u00a0Teresa Dawson<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At the November 29 meeting in Hau‘ula of the Honolulu City Council’s Committee on Transportation and Planning, Hawai‘i Reserves, Inc. (HRI), the local land management arm of the Mormon church, unveiled a new, drastically downsized housing plan to relieve at … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7652,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[432],"tags":[3],"class_list":["post-10140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-january-2018","tag-teresa-dawson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10140"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10140\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}