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As the population of Oahu continues to increase, a need is developing for a second urban center in addition to Honolulu. Kapolei is already expanding and is the apparent choice for a new center. The project will play an important role in the future of Oahu, so many groups from around the country, including the Center for Smart Building and Community Design (the Center) as part of The University of Hawaii’s Sea Grant Office (UH Sea Grant), the UH School of Architecture, the Environmental Protection Agency’s Smart Growth Program, the U.S. Department of Energy, the Urban Land Institute Hawaii Chapter, Campbell Estate, and local communities have been working together to make sure that growth in Kapolei is smart and effective.
Initial construction of residential units began in the late 1980s, with commercial developments following shortly thereafter. Despite ongoing efforts at making Kapolei a self-sufficient city, it remains largely a bedroom community to Honolulu with some continuing traffic problems, although major new road construction has begun.
Although the state and city governments and some of Hawai‘i's largest companies have set up significant sub-centers in Kapolei, the rapid population growth in the area has far out-paced local job creation, and a majority of adults living in and near Kapolei are employed in Honolulu, causing heavy congestion on the main traffic artery, Interstate H-1. In December 2006, Honolulu City Council approved a fixed-guideway transit system from Kapolei to downtown Honolulu. In January 2007, Oahu residents began paying for the system with a 0.5 percent increase in the general excise tax.
Urban development can take two forms: abominable urban sprawl and intelligent urban elegance. The former exists in cities like Dallas and Detroit. The latter appears in cities like Washington, D.C. and Canberra, Australia where careful planning took transportation, community interaction, and environment into account. In 1997, the groups put together the Ewa Development Plan (Ewa is an area adjacent to Kapolei). Currently, the plan includes the following elements:
- protect agricultural lands and open space
- build master planned communities that support walking, biking, and transit use and include affordable housing
- protect natural, historical, and cultural resources
- develop in phases and provide adequate infrastructure for all new developments
Through community interviews and workshops, all entities involved are continuing to sponsor community workshops for which the Center has brought in nationally renowned architects, planners, developers, urban economists, and transportation planners to work with community representatives on the evolution of the plan. The Center knows that outside expert advice is a key to intelligently guiding the projects evolution and will continue to do so as Kapolei’s progress continues. |
