West Oahu Ewa Plain Headed For Disaster: Destroyed Farmland, Depleted Fresh Water, Horrendous Traffic

West Oahu Ewa Plain Headed For Disaster: Destroyed Farmland, Depleted Fresh Water, Horrendous Traffic

by John Bond  Kanehili Cultural Hui

The Traditional Cultural Properties (TCP) aspect make these trails            National Register eligible.

The only mitigation has been HART "tombstones" which say "here lies a one thousand year old highly developed native Konohiki culture" that HART and their land developers have destroyed in the second coming of the Honouliuli Apocalypse (the first was the massive and nearly total annihilation of the native Honouliuli population in the early 1800's.)

Decorated HART Rail pylons are NOT "mitigation" for putting in three rail stations on 1000 year old agricultural lands and then spawning Transit Oriented Development projects covering over EVERYTHING with massive amounts of asphalt and concrete and creating major

water pollution from imperious surfaces. 

The public thought they were voting for a transit system to ease traffic congestion but instead they are getting huge massive Transit Oriented Development and tens of thousands of new buildings paved with concrete and asphalt. There will be a massive increase in cars and trucks on all the roads yet the City, HART and developers want people to believe nearly everyone will be walking and talking bicycles everywhere.

Just hop on the crowded cattle car train which stops at every single station and do all your shopping and every daily errand you can think of. There will be NO BUSSES running straight into downtown Honolulu. People MUST go from shopping center to shopping center twice a day, every day. It will be paradise...(for those who make the big profits from this land and shopping center scheme.)

Will there ever come a time when absolute greed and profit 

Soaring water and sewer bills for resident

The loss of top grade LOCAL agricultural lands is really a massive cultural impact that can NEVER be replaced.

The massive historic and cultural damage inflicted upon the Ewa Plain by FTA-HART Rail requires much more mitigation than just decorated concrete tomb stones and local valuable 1000 year old agricultural lands being substituted at some distant location on Oahu.

Elected officials and government appointees working for the big developers are now promising "replacement ag lands" that are really second rate lands, not the "Golden Triangle" konohiki Honouliuli ahupua'a farm lands which are the Traditional Cultural Properties in the Moku of Ewa. Next we will hear that downtown bike lanes are an adequate "replacement" for ancient TCP trails on the Ewa Plain. These "replacements" and "tomb stone" rail pylons are all decisions made to benefit big money land developers who don't care at all about the culture and history of the Ewa Plain. The "replacement" is really a culture of political corruption and very short sighted and unsustainable THIRD HONOULIULI APOCALYPSE.  

Federal Judge Tashima stated that he did NOT understand or know much about Federal Section 4f law but that not all Traditional Cultural Property - Places (TCP) had been identified. 

Kanehili Cultural Hui had been bringing this all up to FTA and HART for several years in meetings and with voluminous comments and written testimony with maps, diagrams and well researched cultural histories which even FTA-HART had commissioned, and then completely IGNORED! 

FTA improperly determined due to intense political pressure several elements of the HART Rail project as basically categorical exclusions, such as the very well identified and documented Honouliuli TCP's of ancient Hawaiian trails and agricultural farmlands as well as the impact on Honouliuli Village where the elevated HART rail will be clearly seen and heard.

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Ewa Plantation Prime Ag Land Still Retains Centuries Old Traditional Agricultural Features

http://honouliuli.blogspot.com/2015/05/ewa-plantation-prime-ag-land.html

West Oahu Residents Speak Out At Important Ag Lands And Hoopili Station Meetings

http://honouliuli.blogspot.com/2015/06/west-oahu-residents-speak-out.html

FTA and HART Rail Misrepresent The True Ewa Honouliuli Native Hawaiian Spirit Pathway

http://honouliuli.blogspot.com/2015/06/fta-and-hart-rail-misrepresent-TCP.html

Honouliuli Ewa TCP's Are Important Wahi Pana (Sacred Places) On Multi-Dimensional Levels

http://honouliuli.blogspot.com/2015/06/honouliuli-ewa-tcps-are-important.html

Honouliuli Ewa's Makakilo Kalo'i Gulch - A Rare In Depth Survey Of This Important Cultural Property

http://honouliuli.blogspot.com/2015/06/honouliuli-ewa-makakilo-kaloi-gulch.html

Tomb Stone For A 1000 Year Old Native Hawaiian Traditional Cultural Place

The Friends of Makakilo Asking Hawaii LUC For New Hearing On Ho‘opili

 The Friends of Makakilo Asking Hawaii LUC For New Hearing On Ho‘opili

This motion for Order to Show Cause (OSC) was filed on Thursday July 23, 2015 by Dr. Kioni Dudley in the docket A06-771 D.R. Horton – Schuler Homes for the project referred to as Ho`opili in `Ewa, O`ahu.  The OSC asks that the Land Use Commission consider whether it appears, based on the information provided in the Motion, that the Petitioner has violated or failed to comply with conditions in the decision and order approving the Petition.

  

 http://luc.hawaii.gov/pending-petitions-2/motions/a06-771-d-r-horton-dudley-osc/

Motion for Order to Show Cause, Affidavit of Dr. Dudley, Certificate of Service

Exhibit List

Exhibits 1-58

Exhibits 59-62

Cover sheets for Motion and Exhibits

 

Hoopili Critics persists with challenge

Hoopili Traffic Is A Major Issue

By Andrew Gomes       Jul 25, 2015

One of the main opponents of building 11,750 homes at the planned Ho‘opili community on Oahu’s Ewa Plain wants to re-contest a key state approval in  hopes of blocking the project, which obtained city zoning in May.

Community group The Friends of Makakilo Inc., led by Kioni Dudley, filed a  motion with the state Land Use Commission on Thursday asking the LUC to  hold a fresh hearing over whether Ho‘opili should be allowed to go forward on what is 1,553 acres of prime farmland.

 

 

Dudley’s motion is largely based on a contention that a traffic analysis from Ho‘opili developer D.R. Horton is underpinned by bogus housing data and was validated by state and city officials who received campaign contributions or improper gifts from companies that stand to benefit from Ho‘opili work or Horton.

Dudley also contends that Mayor Kirk Caldwell and City Council members all received campaign contributions from construction industry entities in favor of Ho‘opili, thus raising questions about the review and approval of the traffic study.

 

Other allegations made in the motion contend that Horton hasn’t followed through on commitments to help relocate farmers on the land, direct stormwater runoff, provide Native Hawaiian access and notify the commission of plans to sell or lease land within the project.

“Our arguments are powerful, convincing, and backed up with evidence that is too solid to be assailed,” Dudley said in a written announcement.

LUC approval was a preliminary yet pivotal entitlement Horton needed to proceed with Ho‘opili. The commission was charged with deciding whether it was appropriate to allow urban development on land long designated by the state for agricultural use.

Heavily congested traffic on the H-1 freeway has been a huge concern, and is the key issue Dudley said constitutes grounds for reopening the case.

Dudley, who unsuccessfully contested Ho‘opili at LUC hearings in 2011 and 2012 with expert witnesses in conjunction with a similar effort by the Sierra Club and then-state Sen. Clayton Hee, said that he should have had an opportunity to challenge the traffic report during initial hearings but that the report was produced after the commission approved the housing project.

The traffic report, which is an updated version of an initial draft produced by Austin Tsutsumi and Associates for Horton and presented to the LUC, was to be submitted to and deemed acceptable by the state Department of Transportation, the city Department of Transportation Services and the city Department of Planning and Permitting as part of a condition imposed by the LUC.

Dudley also believes that perhaps some officials will take a different view of the traffic report data and conclusions based on the issues he is raising, especially since the LUC has a new composition since Gov. David Ige took office in December.

“We hopefully will have a real chance to confront (Horton officials) on their numbers,” Dudley said in an interview.

Dudley’s motion contends that the report uses a base-line count of 22,048 existing homes in the Ewa-Kapolei region in 2007 and that this is 15 percent under the 25,800 homes listed in the Oahu Regional Transportation Plan from the Oahu Metropolitan Planning Organization.

In terms of a projected number of homes in 2035, Horton’s number is 39,669 and is 31 percent under the ORTP projection of 57,100, the motion said.

The alleged undercounting, Dudley’s motion claims, allows Horton to conclude that adding one lane in each direction on H-1 along a bottleneck around the intersection with H-2 will reduce congestion to an acceptable level.

 

Dudley’s motion also suggests that a DOT official who testified during LUC hearings and “secured approval” of the traffic report in July 2014 could have been influenced by improper gifts from companies that stand to gain work through Horton.

The official was DOT Highways Division Chief Alvin Takeshita, who retired shortly before the state Ethics Commission announced in February a resolution of formal charges that Takeshita and eight other state employees illegally accepted free golf from companies doing business with the state.

Takeshita, according to the Ethics Commission, participated in 10 golf tournaments and an additional three rounds of golf at the expense of concrete and rock producer Ameron Hawaii, engineering firm SSFM International, planning and engineering firm R.M. Towill Corp. and infrastructure consulting firm Parsons Brinckerhoff. Dudley said some of these companies could derive business from Horton. Takeshita settled the charges against him by paying an administrative fine of $5,750.

Horton officials said they have no forecast on when they expect to break ground on Ho‘opili. Work is progressing on infrastructure studies that are necessary before the developer can apply for a city subdivision permit.

Ho'opili Project Has Major Problem Directing Impervious Surface Runoff Water

by John Bond   Kanehili Cultural Hui

Hoopili Drainage Will Run Into Pearl Harbor, Ewa Shoreline 

 

 

 Hoopili Drainage Will Run Into Pearl Harbor

The Entire Ewa Plain Marine Eco-System Is Being Killed By Massive Over Development

 

Hoopili Covers Massive Areas Of Farmland With Concrete And Asphalt

 

The Entire Ewa Plain Marine Eco-System Is Being Killed By Massive Over Development

 Hoopili Drainage Will Pollute Ewa's Reef And Kill The Marine Eco System

Photos Of West Oahu Community Opposition At HART Rail Hoopili Station Meeting In Kapolei 

 http://honouliuli.blogspot.com/2015/06/photos-of-Hoopili-rail-station-protests.html

 

Photos Of West Oahu Community Opposition At City's Kapolei Important Agricultural Lands Meeting

http://honouliuli.blogspot.com/2015/06/photos-Important-Agricultural-Lands.html

 

Photos Of West Oahu Community Protests Of Hoopili Project Destroying 1500 Acres Of Prime Historic Ewa Farmland

http://honouliuli.blogspot.com/2015/06/photos-of-west-oahu-farmland-protests.html

Photos Of Protest Of Day Of Infamy City Bill 3 Which Destroys 1500 Acres Of Historic Prime Ewa Farmland 

http://honouliuli.blogspot.com/2015/06/photos-of-protest-city-Bill-3.html

FTA HART Rail Farmland Dump Site Is Well Documented Native Hawaiian Burial Place 

 http://honouliuli.blogspot.com/2015/07/fta-hart-rail-farmland-dump-site-is.html

Ho'opili Project Is Definition Of Insanity - From Transit System To Really Massive Land Development Scheme

 http://kanehili.blogspot.com/2014/12/hoopili-project-is-insanity.html

FTA and HART Failed To Recognize 

Federal Judge Ruling On Rail Route TCP's

 http://honouliuli.blogspot.com/2015/06/Judge-Tashima-HART-Rail-Lawsuit.html