Usually, developers are fighting to reclassify agricultural or conservation district lands as urban. Thursday on the Big Island, things seemed to move in reverse. Because Aina Lea failed to meet a November 2010 construction deadline for some 400 affordable housing units, the state’s Land Use Commission voted to revert about 1,000 acres back to the agricultural district. It’s not the first time the project has found itself before the commission, and it probably won’t be the last, but the vote was a significant step in that it says the state is serious about time limits for land identified for development.

Read the full story at West Hawaii Today.