STATEMENT OF POSITION
The Friends of Makakilo opposes the petition of D.R. Horton-Schuler Homes, LLC, a Delaware limited liability company d.b.a. D.R. Horton-Schuler Division to amend the Agricultural Land Use District Boundaries into the Urban Land Use District for approximately 1,553.844 acres in Ewa district, Island of Oahu, Tax Map Key Nos. (1) 9-1-017:004 (por.), 059 and 072; (1) 9-1-018:001 and 004.
Summary of Reasons:
The Friends of Makakilo opposes this change from agriculture to urban because:
the H-1 freeway already has been rated nationally as the worst traffic situation in the nation, and even without the Ho’opili development, 33,000 homes have already been zoned and are ready to be built in the Leeward area, and 20,000 more are planned in the Central araa, a total of 55,000 homes without the Ho’opili development;
further, the FEIS for Ho’opili shows that even without their project, and even with rail, these 33,000 homes will cause tremendous degradation to the already terrible freeway jam, and the same FEIS shows that with Ho’opili, and again even with rail in place, traffic on H-1 and H-2 during peak rush-hour will be so greatly impacted that almost all of the segments listed for both freeways, morning-inbound and afternoon-outbound, will be at LOS F, and the people of this area are fed up with taking an hour and fifteen minutes to two hours each way to work, and
the people of this area are angry about what is happening to their lives, and to their families, and to their job performance, and to their community involvement, and to their illusory enjoyment of life in the paradise of Hawaii because they must spend two and a half to four hours of each day in traffic on the freeway and its feeder roads, and
Ho’opili with its 12,000 homes and additional traffic will greatly impact the freeway jam, making life even worse for our people, and because all of the Honolulu-bound commuters from the 12,000 Ho’opili homes will access the available roadways ahead of every single person currently living in Ewa and Kapolei and beyond, assuring each and every one of the current commuters a greater measure of daily misery each weekday morning and evening of their lives, and
because the Ewa Development Plan of 1997 has a Transportation System Functions section of the plan which states that “the transportation system shall …provide adequate capacity for major peak-hour commuting to work in the Primary Urban Center. And it also contains an Adequate Facilities Requirement section which states that “zoning and other development approvals for new developments should be approved only if the responsible City and State agencies indicate that adequate public facilities and utilities will be available at the time of occupancy….” Both of these mandates have been ignored by the City and County in all planning decisions of the last ten years, resulting in the current traffic morass, and
the 2009 revision of the Ewa Development Plan envisions a population of 177,000 by the year 2030, with 58,000 homes. A current Belt Collins study projects 29,963 completed homes in Ewa by 2010. Only 28,000 more homes are needed over the next twenty years to fill the EDP 2030 goal. Yet 33,000 are already zoned, and Ho’opili would add another 12,000, all in excess of the EDP goal, and
because Ho’opili will be built on prime agricultural lands, top quality A and B soils, in 1971 O’ahu only had 53,039 acres of A and B soils. And since then Mililani, Waipio, Waikele, Village Park, Royal Kunia, Ewa by Gentry, and Kapolei have covered perhaps 40% of those prime agricultural lands, and DHHL and UHWO will cover more, and
since sugar times, this land has been, and still is, among the highest producing farmlands in the state, and
since the recent spike in oil prices and food prices have demonstrated clearly that there are circumstances where this island cannot afford to import its food, and
since in future decades and centuries, rising seas may destroy our airports and ports and force us to grow our own food and biofuels in order to survive, and
currently commuters and vacationers traveling westward leave urbanization behind at Waipahu and enjoy the beauty of green fields and open space, the real Hawaii, for the rest of their journey, but the Ho’opili project will fill the entire area from Waipahu to North-South Road, at completion forming solid urbanization from Hawaii Kai to Ko’Olina, which will degrade the enjoyment of Paradise for residents, and will devalue the “non-commercial, country, not-Waikiki” attraction of Ko’Olina resort, one of our greatest economic engines.
We are also concerned about water, schools, the carrying capacity of this island, what the people of these islands want for the future of the islands, and whether these homes will be built primarily for the needs of our people, or for the pleasure of malihini.
For all of these reasons, and more, the Friends of Makakilo opposes the development of Ho’opili.
Summary of Reasons:
The Friends of Makakilo opposes this change from agriculture to urban because:
the H-1 freeway already has been rated nationally as the worst traffic situation in the nation, and even without the Ho’opili development, 33,000 homes have already been zoned and are ready to be built in the Leeward area, and 20,000 more are planned in the Central araa, a total of 55,000 homes without the Ho’opili development;
further, the FEIS for Ho’opili shows that even without their project, and even with rail, these 33,000 homes will cause tremendous degradation to the already terrible freeway jam, and the same FEIS shows that with Ho’opili, and again even with rail in place, traffic on H-1 and H-2 during peak rush-hour will be so greatly impacted that almost all of the segments listed for both freeways, morning-inbound and afternoon-outbound, will be at LOS F, and the people of this area are fed up with taking an hour and fifteen minutes to two hours each way to work, and
the people of this area are angry about what is happening to their lives, and to their families, and to their job performance, and to their community involvement, and to their illusory enjoyment of life in the paradise of Hawaii because they must spend two and a half to four hours of each day in traffic on the freeway and its feeder roads, and
Ho’opili with its 12,000 homes and additional traffic will greatly impact the freeway jam, making life even worse for our people, and because all of the Honolulu-bound commuters from the 12,000 Ho’opili homes will access the available roadways ahead of every single person currently living in Ewa and Kapolei and beyond, assuring each and every one of the current commuters a greater measure of daily misery each weekday morning and evening of their lives, and
because the Ewa Development Plan of 1997 has a Transportation System Functions section of the plan which states that “the transportation system shall …provide adequate capacity for major peak-hour commuting to work in the Primary Urban Center. And it also contains an Adequate Facilities Requirement section which states that “zoning and other development approvals for new developments should be approved only if the responsible City and State agencies indicate that adequate public facilities and utilities will be available at the time of occupancy….” Both of these mandates have been ignored by the City and County in all planning decisions of the last ten years, resulting in the current traffic morass, and
the 2009 revision of the Ewa Development Plan envisions a population of 177,000 by the year 2030, with 58,000 homes. A current Belt Collins study projects 29,963 completed homes in Ewa by 2010. Only 28,000 more homes are needed over the next twenty years to fill the EDP 2030 goal. Yet 33,000 are already zoned, and Ho’opili would add another 12,000, all in excess of the EDP goal, and
because Ho’opili will be built on prime agricultural lands, top quality A and B soils, in 1971 O’ahu only had 53,039 acres of A and B soils. And since then Mililani, Waipio, Waikele, Village Park, Royal Kunia, Ewa by Gentry, and Kapolei have covered perhaps 40% of those prime agricultural lands, and DHHL and UHWO will cover more, and
since sugar times, this land has been, and still is, among the highest producing farmlands in the state, and
since the recent spike in oil prices and food prices have demonstrated clearly that there are circumstances where this island cannot afford to import its food, and
since in future decades and centuries, rising seas may destroy our airports and ports and force us to grow our own food and biofuels in order to survive, and
currently commuters and vacationers traveling westward leave urbanization behind at Waipahu and enjoy the beauty of green fields and open space, the real Hawaii, for the rest of their journey, but the Ho’opili project will fill the entire area from Waipahu to North-South Road, at completion forming solid urbanization from Hawaii Kai to Ko’Olina, which will degrade the enjoyment of Paradise for residents, and will devalue the “non-commercial, country, not-Waikiki” attraction of Ko’Olina resort, one of our greatest economic engines.
We are also concerned about water, schools, the carrying capacity of this island, what the people of these islands want for the future of the islands, and whether these homes will be built primarily for the needs of our people, or for the pleasure of malihini.
For all of these reasons, and more, the Friends of Makakilo opposes the development of Ho’opili.
