Hawaii Supreme Court rules in favor of D.R. Horton’s $4.6B Hoopili project

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D.R. Horton gets OK for 11,750-home Hoopili project in West Oahu

D.R. Horton gets OK for 11,750-home Hoopili project in West Oahu

D.R. Horton – Schuler Homes’ long-planned 11,750-home master-planned Hoopili project in Ewa in West Oahu is moving ahead after the Hawaii State Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Texas developer, saying that the state Land Use Commission properly reclassified the 1,525 acres for the project from agricultural to urban, according to a ruling Tuesday.

The Hawaii Supreme Court ruled against the appeal made by Sierra Club Hawaii Chapter and former state Sen. Clayton Hee, who argued the LUC’s reclassification of land for Hoopili violated part of the state constitution that dealt with conserving these types of lands for agricultural uses.

Sierra Club and Hee also argued that the LUC should not reclassify lands that the City and County of Honolulu could potentially designate as important agricultural lands in the future.

But in the end, the state Supreme Court said that “substantial evidence supported the LUC’s additional findings that the reclassification would not substantially impair agricultural production.”
Judge Richard Pollack, associate justice of the state Supreme Court, disagreed with the ruling. Click here to read his 26-page dissenting opinion on the case.

In October, the LUC ruled against reconsidering its 2012 decision to change the use of the land after an appeal had been filed by Friends of Makakilo.

Traffic and the diversion of potential agricultural lands have been the two main concerns that opponents have with the project.

In addition to single- and multi-family homes, Hoopili would also include commercial and light industrial space, community facilities, schools, parks and open space, facilities, commercial farming and utilities.

D.R. Horton also has gifted the Hawaiian Humane Society and the Waianae Coast Comprehensive Health Center for new West Oahu campuses. There’s also a planned 38-acre retail center by The MacNaughton Group and Kobayashi Group.

D.R. Horton, through its top executive in Hawaii, said that it could start construction on the $4.6 billion project in 2016.

D.R. Horton gets OK for 11,750-home Hoopili project in West Oahu

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D.R. Horton gets OK for 11,750-home Hoopili project in West Oahu

D.R. Horton gets OK for 11,750-home Hoopili project in West Oahu

D.R. Horton — Schuler Division’s rezoning request for its $4.6 billion, 11,750-home Hoopili master-planned community in West Oahu won unanimously approval Wednesday from the Honolulu City Council, a vice president for the developer confirmed to PBN.

The council voted 9-0 in favor of the Ewa development, said Cameron Nekota, vice president of D.R. Horton — Schuler Homes.

The Texas-based developer, which requested that the 1,289-acres of land be rezoned from agriculture to urban, already has received the approval for the zoning change from the state Land Use Commission.

D.R. Horton (NYSE: DHI) hopes to begin construction in 2016.

In the past couple of months, the developer donated five acres at Hoopili to the Hawaiian Humane Society for a second campus and another acre to the Waianae Coast Comprehensive Health Center for a new clinic.

The project also is supposed to include a major solar energy farm.

Honolulu firms The MacNaughton Group, Kobayashi Group and BlackSand Capital are under contract to buy 33 acres of land near Hoopili, which could become a retail center, as first reported by PBN.

The companies are well-known developers of retail and residential projects in Hawaii.

Opponents of the master-planned community argue that it will take away prime agricultural lands and cause even more traffic jams along the already congested West Oahu corridor.

Duane Shimogawa
Pacific Business News

D.R. Horton gives five acres of Hoopili to Hawaiian Humane Society

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hawaiian-humane-societycameron-nekota-600D.R. Horton — Schuler Homes, the developer of the 11,750-home Hoopili project, has donated five acres from the West Oahu master-planned community to the Hawaiian Humane Society for a second campus, the organizations announced Tuesday.

The facility will be located at the corners of Old Fort Weaver and Fort Weaver Road, according to D.R. Horton Vice President Cameron Nekota.

Hawaiian Humane Society President and CEO Pamela Burns said that the nonprofit has been searching for a West Oahu location since 1999.

“It’s through the generosity of D.R. Horton that this is becoming reality for humans and animals that will be served in Hoopili and the entire community,” she said.

Talks with D.R. Horton (NYSE: DHI) began about five years ago, she said.

The new campus will have a staff of 25, and will serve about 200,000 Leeward residents and 16,000 animals. Services will include admissions, sterilization, lost and found, adoptions and a dog park.

The original 2.5 acre Moiliili campus, which employs 85 people and currently oversees 600 volunteers, will remain as the designated administrative office. An $8 million two-phase expansion and renovation has no set date for construction yet, Burns said Tuesday.

“This is one more step in creating a vision of a true second city in Kapolei,” Nekota said, noting that 74 percent of Leeward residents are pet owners.

More than 26,000 animals arrived at the Moiliili location last year. Sixteen thousand of those are expected to be served at the second campus.

The Hawaiian Humane Society is nearing the end of its $18 million capital campaign, about half of which has been dedicated to Moiliili, and an undisclosed amount will be spent on the West Oahu campus.

Burns said that there is no estimated opening date, and more details will be worked out in the next six to 12 months.

D.R. Horton — Schuler Homes LLC, told PBN that it plans to tentatively start construction on Hoopili sometime in 2016, but still needs approval from the City and County of Honolulu to change the zoning for the land from agricultural to urban.

Lorin Eleni Gill Reporter – Pacific Business News

Honolulu City Council will consider rezoning for D.R. Horton’s West Oahu Hoopili development

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D.R. Horton – Schuler Division’s rezoning request for its 11,750-home Hoopili master-planned community in West Oahu is expected to go before the Honolulu City Council on Feb. 18, a council member’s senior adviser confirmed to PBN.

D.R. Horton will ask to have the land rezoned from agricultural to urban. The state Land Use Commission already has approved the zoning change.

Ikaika Anderson, chair of the Council’s Zoning and Planning Committee, is expected to ask Council Chairman Ernie Martin to include the Hoopili project on the Feb. 18 agenda, said Gail Myers, senior adviser to Anderson.

“We anticipate that he will,” she said in an email to PBN. “Providing that the bill passes first reading, it will be referred to the Committee on Zoning and Planning. The Council agenda posts on Feb. 12, at which time we will be certain that Bill 3 appears on that agenda.”

D.R. Horton hopes to begin construction in 2016.

This week, PBN first reported that Honolulu firms The MacNaughton Group, Kobayashi Group and BlackSand Capital are under contract to buy 33 acres of land near Hoopili, which could become a retail center. The companies are well-known developers of retail and residential projects in Hawaii.

Duane Shimogawa Reporter – Pacific Business News