Laie entities seek planned sustainable growth

By Mike Foley

Hundreds of Koolauloa residents living from Kaaawa to Kahuku participated in a series of Envision Laie project orientation meetings over the past month, leading up to participatory community workshops on April 26-27 in BYU–Hawaii's Cannon Activities Center. Many of the participants returned for an "open house" meeting on May 28 in the same location to hear a report on preliminary results derived from the workshops.

In August 2008 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints commissioned a consulting team of experts to conduct sustainability studies out to the year 2050 of its entities in Laie — Brigham Young University–Hawaii, the Polynesian Cultural Center, Hawaii Reserves, Inc. (HRI) and, to a lesser extent the Laie Hawaii Temple — and the surrounding Koolauloa communities. The study has since been dubbed the Envision Laie project, which has a web site at:

http://www.envisionlaie.com.

In the meetings leading up to the workshops, representatives from the three Laie entities explained that the consultants conducted internal reviews in close cooperation with their respective management teams during the initial Envision Laie studies, which showed:

Initial findings

• A lack of jobs, economic diversity and affordable housing is causing a slow deterioration in this area.

• Koolauloa is no longer a viable place to raise families.

• BYU–Hawaii and the Polynesian Cultural Center are not sustainable in their current form and structures, and cannot continue indefinitely as they are.

• BYU–Hawaii and the PCC are the two main economic catalysts in the area, with slightly over 70 percent of the people in Laie working for one of the two entities.

• 13 percent of the people in Koolauloa live below the poverty level, making this the second-most economically depressed area on Oahu.

In an orientation meeting at BYU–Hawaii, for example, HRI President & CEO R. Eric Beaver explained in the second phase of the Envision Laie project the consulting team — along with community involvement — is currently looking at sustainability scenarios and their impact on Koolauloa. He said a third phase of the project involves submitting a request to incorporate some of the results of the project into the City and County of Honolulu's Koolau Loa Sustainable Communities Plan (KLSCP).

Beaver said the City's plan for Koolauloa [editor's note: Kaleo uses the variant spelling for the moku], adopted about eight years ago, is a conceptual blueprint for future development out to a 20-year rolling horizon (whereas the State of Hawaii is proposing a horizon of 2050). The KLSCP calls for community reviews every five years; and despite missing the initial target-date interval, the City Department of Planning and Permits (DPP) recently conducted the first review.

Furthermore, at a January 29 community meeting at Hauula Elementary School, the Latter-day Saint entities requested the DPP keep the review process open until the Envision Laie project could be completed. City planners denied this request, but indicated an amendment could be sought when it is ready.

Beaver noted that having proposed projects included in the KLSCP does not guarantee future approvals — which must come, first, from the City Planning Commission, and then from the City Council — but not being included in the plan could prevent such future projects from moving forward. He also said that the current plan "does not allow any movement of boundaries — something all three entities are seeking."

For example, in that same orientation meeting BYU–Hawaii President Steven C. Wheelwright pointed out that annual costs at the university have doubled over the past 14 years, with the majority of the funding coming from the Latter-day Saint Church. "We can't keep growing the cost to the university, or the cost to the students at the same rate," he said.

He explained that planned growth to at least 4,000 students over the next 10 years would create economies of scale. That growth, however, would require replacing "all of our single-student dorms, have more of them, and expand our married student housing over the next 10 years. Our goal is to have about 80 percent of our single students and about 90 percent of our married students living on campus."

PCC President & CEO Von D. Orgill pointed out in the same meeting that the Center also needs to keep its future expansion possibilities open in the face of current economic impacts to the visitor industry, years of deferred maintenance, and recently went through the "very painful" measure of reducing the fulltime staff by approximately one-third.

"We're never going to go away from the cultural things we've been doing so well and for so long," he stressed, but said recent marketing experiments such as the successful "Haunted Lagoon" canoe ride are leading the PCC to consider other "wholesome family entertainment" possibilities.

"If we're going to be doing additional new things, we might well need additional land to expand our offerings. We don't want the development plan to constrain our abilities to do that," Orgill said. "That's all we're asking for. Don't pen us in: We're determined to be around for a long time."

The community workshops

To give community residents the opportunity for input and response, the Envision Laie consultants and leaders from the three Laie entities held a workshop on Tuesday, April 26, in BYU–Hawaii's Cannon Activities Center from 6-9 p.m. Another session of the same workshop was held April 27 for those who couldn't make the first one, and a summary report of the combined workshop preliminary results were given at an "open house" meeting on April 28 from 6-8 p.m. Approximately 300 people attended each of the meetings.

Robert Grow [pictured at right] — lead consultant for the Envision Laie project, who is also an engineer and attorney with the law firm of Grow and Bruening in Salt Lake City — explained participants at the workshops were presented with several questions:

• Given the challenges about affordable housing, the lack of diversity in the economy and the lack of jobs in this region, would this community be better off if BYU–Hawaii and the PCC were to begin to grow?
• If so, how would they like to see it grow?
• Where would they like to see it grow?
• What kind of housing would they like — a mix, more of one kind, etc.?
• And what are the things most important to preserve and protect?

With that charge, the community residents divided into working groups around large digitized maps of Koolauloa where they used different colored stickers to indicate how they would like to see development occur in the area over the next 20 years, "or about a generation," Grow said.

"This is the best technique anywhere to think about how growth should occur," he continued, adding that the procedure was first used in Utah about 12 years ago. "Since then it's been used where probably 80 million people live in the United States: It's been used in Chicago, in southern Louisiana after the hurricane, Dallas, Houston, Orlando. This has become the best way for the public to express their views by actually planning their own communities."

He explained the consultants would scan each of the maps to analyze the placement of all the stickers, and present that overall data when ready on the Envision Laie web site. "Once the government can see what the people's hopes and dreams are for the future, hopefully they'll allow the people to choose that direction," he added.

"I've seen this process in many places in the country, but I've never seen so many people turn out in such a strong way with the desire to share their hopes for the future," Grow said. "This is also a tremendous turnout. You can see how much people love the community and how important it is to them. This is a very special place."

One of the many who turned out, Chai Yoshimura, a Laie resident who teaches at Kahuku Elementary School, said she liked the process, especially the idea of letting young people come up with the ideas. "We've got to think of the future."

Anna Kaanga, a 39-year resident of Hauula and an administrative assistant for the BYU–Hawaii History, Religion and Political Science Departments, described participating in the workshop as "educational and empowering. We could envision lots of things happening without destroying too much of the land. She added she would personally like to see bike and walking paths extended. "We also wanted an alternate road besides Kamehameha Highway."

Karla Schade, the wife of a BYUH Religion professor, said she and her family moved to Laie about three years ago from Toronto, Canada, said she also liked the process, and is very happy that she can "let my children leave our yard, run around the block and play with all their friends safely. In Toronto there were just within our yard, and there were a lot of safety issues. I like the small town feel here."

And long-time Laie Community Association board member and community leader Junior Ah You said the workshop procedures "allowed individuals to express their feelings, and place things where they wanted. I pretty much had the same concerns as everybody else: Affordable homes and jobs."

Ah You said he's also attended many planning meetings over the years, "but this is an excellent concept. Everyone had the opportunity to express their personal feelings with the push of a button."

He was referring to another part of the workshops where each person there used a "remote clicker" as part of an "instant polling" process by Interactive PowerPoint: Just moments after answering the multiple-choice questions, the results were posted on a large overhead screen for everyone to see.

Preliminary workshop results

Grow started the April 28 "open house" summary meeting by reminding everyone, "We're moving very quickly," and that a great deal of work had to be done to more fully analyze the 62 maps covered with 12,600 stickers plus the 7,600 votes that had been cast during the two previous meetings.

However, among the preliminary results of the approximately 450 people who voted during the two workshops:

• 71 percent were from Laie.
• Affordable housing was the most important concern.
• Residents "like what we have, but you're also concerned about protecting the future."
• Nearly 80 percent said the lack of growth potential is a critical issue.
• Approximately 70 percent said family members have left the area due to a lack of opportunities here.
• The majority wants to keep the country, country, but that doesn't mean no growth.
• There was a preference for mixed-use housing.
• The majority of those voting wanted about 60 housing units added each year over the next 20 years.
• BYU–Hawaii's future is extremely important to the region.
• 91 percent agreed that the City's Koolau Loa Sustainable Communities Plan should be amended.
• 67 percent felt most of the new housing should go in Malaekahana.

Grow emphasized that those who did not attend the meetings can still express their opinions by taking an online survey.

Of the preliminary map analysis, John Fregonese, President of Fregonese Associates of Portland, Oregon, and one of the leading consultants, said, "I've been in planning for 32 years, and I've seen a lot of plans succeed. The thing that's most important is not what is written in the documents, but it's the heart of the people who are behind it, whether they can move their agenda forward, keeping together as a team. That's one of the things that needs to come out of this [process]. This is a great start."

Fregonese said preliminary analysis of the maps showed:

• Affordable housing is the most common statement. "Many of you understand that affordable housing is not going to 'drop out of the sky.' You understand that land and construction are expensive, so you chose to increase housing density, but you didn't go overboard," he said. "You also showed meeting the needs of people with modest incomes is very important."

• "Every map shows some idea for entrepreneurship. You want to increase the amount of economic diversity, and you want to have a business park."

• "Many of you recognize that having BYU–Hawaii and the PCC is a big advantage…and enhances your economic development potential."

• "Many of you are interested in alternative energy."

• "Most felt it was important to preserve the expansion are BYUH for long-term sustainability. Clearly this is one of the areas to discussion with the City."

• "A lot of you showed development beyond the current community boundaries. On the other hand, you didn't go into the conservation areas. You also stayed out of steep slopes and mostly out of flood plains."

• Fregonese said most people considered using and even extending the old mauka cane haul road as a good alternative to Kamehameha Highway.

• There was a lot of enthusiasm for bike and pedestrian pathways," he continued.

• "You have a strong desire for improved local amenities: Parks came up over and over again." Other requested amenities and public services included preserving mountain and beach accesses, a new medical center, a new fire station, and a new school in Malaekahana.

• "Ensuring that future growth does not make drainage worse."

• "90 percent of the maps placed some growth in Malaekahana; 70 percent placed growth in Kahuku, and in Hauula; about 60 percent in Laie village proper, and about 15 percent in the BYU–Hawaii expansion area."

"One of the things that's important to realize is that you have plans and laws in place that you need to deal with," Fregonese said. "But the most important thing is vision… A vision without action is a hallucination. It's important to have long-range vision, and a short-range action plan to get you there."

 

Questions and answers

Turning to questions and answers, Grow responded to "what's next?" by noting a request will be made to the City and County to formally amend the Koolauloa plan "in a way that matches your maps. It's essential that we get all the support we can possibly get for that… There's lots of work after that."

What about other parts of Koolauloa? Grow said people from throughout the region were included in the workshops.

Not everybody in the "open house" meeting was in favor of more development. For example, Laie resident Diana Hoppe said the maps were "really skewed toward growth," and added that the cost of this growth was a loss of values. "This is the best place," she added, "and I don't want to see it ruined."

Asked what will happen if we don't develop, Grow said, "This area already has a substantially lower number of jobs per household. There are 1.9 jobs per household in Honolulu, while this area has 1.2. This is already an economically weak region, and I believe it has gotten weaker over time… Look at the things that are gone. Those trends will continue," he added, without some amount of controlled growth.

"This community does not lack for people who care about what happens," Grow continued. "The institutions we're talking about have deep, deep roots here…[whereas] developers have very short-term perspectives and very high pro forma expectations of what drops to the bottom line."

"To me, the real success is when planning is done at the citizen level," Fregonese added. "Continued involvement is really important."

Community member Winnie Graham pointed out there's a "tremendous amount of opposition" to growth in the area, and asked, "How do we deal with that opposition?"

"My first thought is, in the long run the people who live here ought to make those decisions, based upon what the majority of the people want and say will best benefit their lives," Grow responded. "I'm a big believer that this kind of visioning exercise is designed to bring people together. Our attitude is that we'll continue to engage, talk, share ideas and find common ground, as much as we can."

"Having said that, it's a tremendous challenge to get this plan amended," Fregonese added, noting this is a change of direction. "It will take a concerted effort from the community… One of the advantages we have is that it will be growth for local people who live here, and for local institutions, making life better. You can do it in a way that's really sustainable."

Laiemaloo resident and Kahuku High teacher Beth Kammerer pleaded for the future development of the school: "We have a cadre of extremely dedicated teachers and very talented students — in truly terrible facilities. Your children deserve better." She also expressed concern for Kamehameha Highway: "It's a very small road, designed to be traveled at 25-35 miles per hour, and it's not a 35 mile-an-hour world anymore."

Near the end of the meeting, others expressed appreciation and support for the process. For example, Laie resident Kela Miller said how important it is to realize that "we live in a beautiful community that we all love… We have a community association, and we need to be involved. We need to be there in numbers."

"You and I, our children and grandchildren have the opportunity now to do what we always wanted to do," she said. "I was born and raised in Laie, and I know our ancestors are very pleased with what we're planning."

"This is a historic moment in the future of Laie," said former resident Brian Carrington, President of Property Reserve, Inc. — the Latter-day Saint Church affiliated company that actually holds title to most of the land in Laie. He also thanked all of the participants, and he emphasized that "decisions have not yet been made in terms of how much investment can be made at this time, or in the future. Decisions haven't been made in terms of what direction we should be taking, and decisions haven't been made in terms of what resources need to be put in place."

"It's important for the community to realize that many of the things they would like to have in the future, they may need to work for…they may need to make a part of their own budgets and their own processes."

"One thing that I would like to do is set realistic expectations. We all have dreams…and it's going to take a lot of work."

Carrington added that it's also important for community residents to "stand up and say, I'm willing to make it happen," as opposed to being given things. "Then I think there will be a lot of support for what you're trying to achieve. Realistic expectations start with the individual."

"This is just the beginning — the first step in a very long process ahead of us," he said. "Your participation here is overwhelming, and much appreciated."

— Photos by Mike Foley