Hey, what is the governor thinking? Here we are in the midst of an election year where one of the state’s U.S. Senate seats is up for grabs, and Gov. Abercrombie has staked out a position in support of a development that will replace 1,000 acres of prime Oahu agricultural land with nearly 12,000 new homes.
D.R. Horton’s Ho’opili development was opposed by the administration of former Gov. Linda Lingle, now the presumed GOP candidate for that said Senate seat. It’s also now opposed by former Democratic governors John Waihee and Ben Cayetano, along with environmental groups and others looking to preserve farm land.
Abercrombie’s support for Ho’opili creates lots of room for Lingle to claim environmental creds. Even more painful is the fact that the governor has reversed course since Candidate Abercrombie pledged to block the project.
Civil Beat reported earlier this year that Abercrombie told several representatives of environmental groups during the gubernatorial campaign that the project would not have his support.
“Abercrombie promised that it wouldn’t go forward,” said Kioni Dudley, president of Friends of Makakilo, which has been working for several years to stop the development.
The governor’s pledge was confirmed by others at the meeting, including Donna Wong and Tom Coffman of Hawaii’s Thousand Friends; Pearl Johnson, chair of the League of Women Voters; and Robert Harris, director of the Hawaii chapter of the Sierra Club.
“He did say something to the effect of, under his watch, Ho’opili would not go forward,” said Harris.
The State Constitution creates a state responsibility to protect agricultural land, which the governor is trying to tip toe around.
Article 11, Section 3:
AGRICULTURAL LANDS
Section 3. The State shall conserve and protect agricultural lands, promote diversified agriculture, increase agricultural self-sufficiency and assure the availability of agriculturally suitable lands. The legislature shall provide standards and criteria to accomplish the foregoing.
Lands identified by the State as important agricultural lands needed to fulfill the purposes above shall not be reclassified by the State or rezoned by its political subdivisions without meeting the standards and criteria established by the legislature and approved by a two-thirds vote of the body responsible for the reclassification or rezoning action. [Add Const Con 1978 and election Nov 7, 1978]
I don’t think Ho’opili’s plan for backyard and community gardens, combined with some small commercial ag leases, meets the constitutional standard for conserving and protecting these prime ag lands, but perhaps that’s just me. The governor claims he’s supporting farming and the preservation of ag land by supporting this new 12,000-home development. I think that’s a claim that needs a lot more fact checking.
It would have been simple for Neil to stick to his campaign promise. He could have deferred to the position staked out by the Lingle administration in opposition to the plan, and gotten the support of Waihee and Cayetano.
Instead, he has thrown the administration’s support behind the project.
This isn’t good news for progressive Dems, but it may give another boost to Sen. Clayton Hee, who is opposing the project in proceedings before the Land Use Commission.
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Since Abercrombie’s key staff members rotate out of their jobs (for family reasons!) so frequently, maybe he is just not getting good advice. I suppose he could always turn to Peter Carlisle for guidance, next time the Mayor is in town.
Democrats and Progressive Democrats are mostly sold-out to big money. Democrats can’t blame Republicans because there are hardly any.
I keep hearing this on many issues- how Abercrombie’s actions will somehow be a major influence on the senate race. I suppose the theory goes that people will see what he does and say “Lingle? well, not so bad.” I even wrote a column says something like that.
But I’m beginning to think that rather that, the average voter- as opposed to we over-analytical political junkies- will look at her actions and give a thumbs up or down based on how they feel about her and the action or at most compare it to Hanabusa’s (or god forbid Case’s) position and not do some convoluted comparison with Abercrombie. Plus of course we’re dealing with a state land use issue here and the rhetoric in the senate race will be revolving around federal issues, not Ho`opili.
There is a very serious disconnect here on this project which none of the leaders & policy-makers will address.
If the former governor is elected mayor – refuse to use his name – and kills the mass transit system while the Land Use Commission approves the Ho`opili project, how and who will handle the massive increase in traffic.
Meanwhile, if the above scenario occurs, how will the massive increase in fossil fuels to power up the vehicles to transport people and products to/from the urban core to West O`ahu impact Hawai`i’s official position to significantly shift to renewable energy sources over the next 20 years – including the transportation sector.?
According to a summary report from DBEDT, more than 90 per cent of the adult population living in West O`ahu not including the Wai`anae Coast who are employed full-time travel more than 20 miles to/from work on a daily basis.
Abercrombie is clearly speaking with the forked tongue: Do as I say, not as I do.
“If the former governor is elected mayor – refuse to use his name – and kills the mass transit system while the Land Use Commission approves the Ho`opili project, how and who will handle the massive increase in traffic.”
cwd: Ho’opili is going to lead to a massive increase in traffic whether or not there’s a train to the mall running over it. There are only TWO groups who want to see Ho’opili built, developers and construction interests. That’s it. You think ordinary people living on the west side are thinking “you know what’d be great? An enormous new housing development standing between me and the rest of Oahu.”
The people pushing for the train and Ho’opili aren’t going to ride the train, nor will they live in Ho’opili. They will walk away with a lot of money though.
what was he thinking?
who knows! maybe the SA or CB or a TV station or Mr. Dooyle can go knock on his door and ask him, hey, what were you thinking? and then write a story about what he says. Else, we’ll probably never know… ;-0
or is that too old school for our modern world?
Hoopili and the rail might be bigger issues in the US Senate race than we might have otherwise expected.
Support for rail is now in a minority — 43%, according to the Star Advertiser — and falling on Oahu. Likewise, Hoopili is unpopular with just about everybody on Oahu except the Abercrombie administration, construction unions and developers. (I even read a comment in a Civil Beat article that read: “I am a full-time realtor, and I don’t think Hoopili is in the best interest of the real estate industry.” Basically, it will be adding excess supply to an already falling market.)
So all Ed Case has to do is ask Mazie Hirono during a debate what her stance on Hoopili and the rail are. If she says she is for it, then it would probably help to reinforce the impression that she is just a puppet or mouthpiece of the status quo. In fact, Case could take a stand now on Hoopili and Hirono would look bad by not responding.
In politics, a week is an eternity, and there are 150 days left until the election. Support for these projects is continuing to fall, and by the election it could be quite low. So Case and Lingle might come out stronger thanks to these unpopular projects.
But who knows what Case’s opinions are on these projects. It took him a while to respond to your labeling him a conservative. And I cannot find anything on his website on these issues.
http://www.edcase.com/issues/agenda
Also, I cannot find anything on Hirono’s website on these projects.
http://www.mazieforhawaii.com/why
There is already heavy traffic in Kapolei and the place can’t be more than 20% built. There is land for thousands or homes that is ready to go. There is an old rail line that would have made a great place for light rail to serve existing areas. The line could start in the Kahe Point area with a park-n-ride. The line passes Costco and is at a great location bewteen commercial and industrial areas in Campbell/Kalaeloa and areas of new and existing houses. There is enough land there to build thousands of new homes. The line would also serve thousands of existing homes.
When the city paid PR people came out to seek public input many years ago, the line across the empty farm land had already been drawn to serve only new developments. The existing development-ready and already developed land was clearly ignored by their plan. But early on, it was clear that input from the public would mean only to being part of their sham.
In all fairness, here is also the relevant page from Lingle’s website:
http://www.lingle2012.com/hawaii-issues-politics/#visitor
There is no mention of land development in general or Hoopili in particular.
I think having a person as governor for eight years can generate a bit of “cabin fever”, and familiarity can breed contempt. Everyone has flaws, and personally I find Lingle to be simplistic, rigid and moralizing. But the flip side to that is that she is also quite honorable in her own fastidious way.
Abercrombie has taken a u-turn on everything. Not Lingle. I’m not a fan of Margaret Thatcher, but here’s a famous quote from a Thatcher speech that I repeat here out of respect for Lingle’s stubborn integrity.
Lingle’s finest hour was itself a speech in which she stated that there is more to development than land development. And she probably still sticks by that today.
Here’s a little rumination on big projects.
According to Civil Beat, the big wind is dying.
http://www.civilbeat.com/articles/2012/03/06/15108-senate-passes-undersea-cable-bill-as-big-wind-becomes-less-likely/
Among the big projects in Hawaii, the energy projects that you have pointed out are so questionable — biofuels and the big wind — have quietly died or seem to be dying.
Now, we can recite all the misgivings and ask all the usual question about these big projects. Big projects attract flies, and they seem to transform into unrecognizable form for the sake of profits or patronage. They tend to fall apart whilst in their early stages, or do not work as planned. Is this true of the big projects in Hawaii? That’s a standard question being asked now.
The question I want to ask is: What’s next? Will the status quo replace failed big projects with new big projects? And what would you or those of us in your audience propose in their stead?
Hoopili is likewise a big project, like the rail project. Perhaps we can anticipate that both these projects will not happen or fail to work (e.g., home sales might fizzle in Hoopili). Like the biofuels and Big Wind, this collapse might happen sooner rather than later. So what exactly are Ian Lind’s alternative transportation and housing policies in Hawaii?