City approves new town in Malaekahana
Cover
Malaekahana / UPDATE: The original version of this story failed to capture that final approval of the Koolau Loa Sustainable Communities Plan will follow a public review process. This version clarifies.
A proposal to build a new community in what is now open space in Malaekahana — consistent with a Mormon Church-driven development effort known as “Envision Laie” — has been included in the cityʻs planning documents for the area. Under the terms of a final review plan to be released today by the Department of Planning and Permitting, new housing will be constructed to house staff and faculty of Brigham Young University-Hawaii, in addition to “about 875 units for workforce housing for existing Koolauloa families,” according to a copy of the plan obtained by Honolulu Weekly.
DPPʻs new five-year review of the Koolau Loa Sustainable Communities Plan diverges from previous city policy to develop new Koolauloa housing only in areas “contiguous to existing development.” The new plan states that Malaekahana “is expected to be an extension of the established Laie community.”
The plan does not detail the precise number of new housing units to be built in Malaekahana. Previous estimates submitted by BYUH in its “Envision Laie” proposal call for 1,260 total units of housing. The new city plan directs that fifty percent of the total new housing should be “affordable to local area residents” and that preference for these units should be given “first to those who live in Laie and Kahuku, and secondly to those who work in the Koolau Loa region.” If area household sizes remain relatively constant, the total population of the Laie/Malaekahana area would more than double, from just under 5,000 today to well over 10,000—a community roughly the size of present-day Waimanalo.
The new plan for Koolau Loa includes construction of a mauka road, running from Laie Beach Park to Kahuku High and Intermediate Schools, “in the first phase of construction.” The road is intended to mitigate the impact of what amounts to a new town along two-lane Kamehameha Highway, where traffic is already a concern.
DPP director David Tanoue could not immediately be reached for comment. According to a source who attended a Wednesday meeting in which Koolau Loa Planning Advisory Committee was informed of the departmentʻs decision to include the Envision Laie proposal in its updated planning for the region, city officials described the draft as having been approved by “the administration.” It was not clear whether the remark referred to the administration of former mayor Mufi Hannemann or that of the outgoing Acting Mayor, Kirk Caldwell. Messages left Wednesday afternoon for both Caldwell, who leaves office next week, and Hannemann were not returned by late Thursday morning.
Among the provisions for what the plan calls the “Malaekahana Residential Community”:
* Prohibiting development that would “intrude into defined Malaekahana view corridors, as seen from Kamehameha Highway.”
* Encouragement of mixed-using zoning.
* Maintenance of “rural quality” along Kamehameha Highway “by maintaining generous setbacks and landscaping at the forefront.”
* Encouragement of bike paths.
Read more about the cityʻs plans for Malaekahana and Koolau Loa in next weekʻs Honolulu Weekly.
Background on Envision Laie and planning issues related to Koolau Loa can be found in this 2008 Malaekahanaville story.
COMMENTS
We often print online comments in our “Letters to the Editor” section of Honolulu Weekly. While submitted letters are often edited for length and clarity, online comments we use are printed entirely as they are written for the website. If you do not wish for your comment to be used in Honolulu Weekly print issues, please write “Don’t Print” at the end of your comment. For questions, e-mail editorial@honoluluweekly.com. Thank you!