HONOLULU (AP) — The Hawaii Supreme Court has upheld a decision by a state commission to add nearly 12,000 homes on farmland on Oahu’s Ewa Plain.
HONOLULU (AP) — The Hawaii Supreme Court has upheld a decision by a state commission to add nearly 12,000 homes on farmland on Oahu’s Ewa Plain.
The court’s ruling Tuesday rejects an appeal brought by opponents of the project in 2012 against the state Land Use Commission. The project’s developer, D.R. Horton, can now move ahead with converting more than 1,500 acres of farmland into residential property.
Hawaii Sen. Clayton Hee and representatives of the Sierra Club made the appeal, claiming the development violated state laws that call for the preservation of agricultural land. The project’s opponents argued that the commission should have adopted rules to designate the agricultural land under a 2005 law before choosing to urbanize the site.
In the appeal, opponents also found the commission to be in violation of its own rules that prohibit urbanizing farmland if developing the land hinders agricultural production or is not crucial to accommodating population growth.
Horton officials maintain that the project is necessary to accommodate the growing population. They have argued that farmers displaced from the site could relocate to land in the Wahiawa area where they could maintain agricultural production.
The developer plans to break ground on the project next year.