Large TOD moves forward in Hawaii

A large-scale transit-oriented development (TOD) is being planned about 15 miles northwest of Honolulu, Hawaii. The proposed development, called Ho’opili, includes 12,000 units on 1,600 acres in a series of walkable neighborhoods with mixed-use town centers. The community is expected to start construction in 2012 — centered on a planned elevated rail line for which the funding was approved by the city in 2005.

“It’s a big project on a small island — the first one that was looked at from the point of view of integration of transportation and land use,” says Tim Van Meter, of Van Meter Williams Pollack, the lead urban design firm. The developer is D.R. Horton, one of the largest house builders in the US. Hawaii has, to date, built little of what can be called New Urbanism or TOD. In scale, Van Meter compares Ho’opili to the Stapleton Airport redevelopment in Denver. Ho’opili includes 4 million square feet of commercial space.

Oahu has steep mountains with coastal valleys and plains that historically featured pineapple and sugar cane plantations. In the last century, land was converted to military bases, industry, and suburbia that resembles Orange County, California, Van Meter told New Urban News. The Ho’opili site is the “last big piece,” he says. “They are trying to do something completely new on it.”

Ho’opili’s medium density represents a departure from business as usual in Hawaii, Van Meter points out. “The in-between isn’t there,” he explains. “You go from high-density of Honolulu to single-house sprawl. Ho’opili is three and four stories.” Eighty percent of the housing will be attached.

An argument for the higher density comes from the $4 billion, 20-mile, 20-station heavy rail line that will connect Honolulu to suburban developments along the coast. The system will be paid for through local taxes leveraging significant federal funds. The choice of elevated heavy rail was dictated by urban geography, Van Meter says. Honolulu is composed of high-density development with narrow rights of way and limited connectivity, he explains. The transit line is slated to go through downtown and Chinatown. Outside of the city the low-density suburbs are laid out in poorly connected pods. The arterial roads have little room for light rail, he says.

Dealing with the impact of elevated rail on the urban form will be a challenge, Van Meter says. The development patterns in Hawaii “point more toward Asia than the mainland. In places like Kuala Lumpur and Vancouver they have this kind of system.” Ho’opili will have two stations — one in the town center and one at the edge — situated between the new town and the new University of Hawaii West Oahu campus. The latter sets the stage for a transit village. “This will help to bind the new town and campus. I’m excited by that,” he says. “There’s a six-to-eight-lane highway between the two, and the station will make the connection.” The University of Hawaii originally fought the rail station, but has now embraced it and is building a pedestrian bridge across the highway.

In a state with the second highest housing costs in the nation (behind California), affordability is a big issue. As part of getting entitlement to so much development, D.R. Horton has agreed to build 30 percent affordable housing. To meet that standard, the units will be affordable to those earning 80 percent of the median income. The affordable housing will be subsidized largely through the commercial development, Van Meter says.

Entitlement is proceeding both at the local level and through the State Land Board. It is expected to take 1.5 to 2 years, he says. Van Meter has introduced aspects of the SmartCode and other form-based codes into the documents that local planners are familiar with. The concept of form-based codes is new to Hawaii, and a pure version “would be like a club and what we need is a magic wand,” he explains. Key parts of the plan, like the mixed-use centers, will be designed in detail. The larger residential areas will be governed by code. Van Meter expects D.R. Horton to bring in other builders and developers to help build out the project. “This will be a big icing on the cake for their corporate portfolio,” he says. “They haven’t done much multifamily in the past, but they are creating new models.”

Charlier Associates is the transportation planner on the project.