“The Ho‘opili development would plant 11,750 housing units on the most productive farmland in Hawai‘i,” said Randy Ching a long-time leader of the Sierra Club.  "Developers on the Leeward Coast already have zoning approval for more than 34,000 houses. Add this new mini-city and you are looking at total gridlock on H1 which is already the second most congested freeway in the nation. We should be building in the city, not in the country.”

 

The Sierra Club notes that some 20% of the produce grown in Hawai’i is grown on the farmlands that Horton plans to pave over, including 75% of our sweet corn and nearly half of our beans, zucchini, broccoli and lettuce amongst other crops. Hawai‘i grows less than 15% of the food it consumes. To allow this development to go ahead would further undermine our already shaky food security.  

 

“Our reliance on imported food leaves us extremely vulnerable to disruption and inflation," Ching notes. “Governor Abercrombie made boosting our food security a top priority.  This ill-considered Horton development would completely undermine his efforts. We hope his administration takes a leadership role in figuring out ways to protect this valuable and irreplaceable property.”  

 

Anthony Aalto, Chair of the Sierra Club’s Capitol Watch which promotes green bills in the Legislature, said, “We applaud Horton’s adoption of techniques we favor: dense, mixed-use neighborhoods, bicycle and pedestrian-friendly streets close to mass transit. But Transit Oriented Development on O‘ahu is a strategy to preserve farmland not to justify this vast splurge of concrete over our most productive land. We fail to understand why this huge mainland developer, the largest house builder in the nation, cannot use its wealth and expertise to build responsibly in the traditional urban core.”

 

Aalto added, “We want affordable housing and we want well paid construction jobs. We believe both can be had by revitalizing existing urban neighborhoods. There is no need to pillage the ‘aina. Hotel industry leaders keep warning us that urban sprawl is now the top tourist complaint. If we carry on like this we will undermine our major industry and biggest employer. It has got to stop.”

 

Ching said, “We do not see how Horton can mitigate the damage of this proposed development. Already the commute from Kapolei is a nightmare. This project will add thousands more cars to the freeway. The aquifers on the Leeward Coast are already close to their maximum sustainable yield, this plan would further deplete them. The state is committed to reducing its reliance on imported energy, this plan would exacerbate it. We don’t grow enough food to last us through a prolonged emergency, this plan would leave us even more exposed.”

 

Ching concluded, “We are confident the LUC will recognize that this proposal does not comply with the state’s constitutional requirement to ‘conserve and protect agricultural lands, promote diversified agriculture, increase agricultural self-sufficiency and assure the availability of agriculturally suitable lands.’ In a word: it’s unconstitutional.”

 

Hawaii Chapter of the Sierra Club

Founded in 1968, the Hawai`i Chapter of the Sierra Club is the state’s largest and most active grassroots environmental organization. The Club actively promotes reducing the impacts of global climate change by encouraging the development of clean renewable energy, promoting sustainable practices, and ensuring our fragile native habitat is protected from harm. www.sierraclubhawaii.com