Gov. Neil Abercrombie’s administration is supporting the 11,700 home master-planned community in Ewa, to the disappointment of environmental groups. The stance is a reversal from Gov. Linda Lingle’s administration. 

The state Dept. of Ag., the Dept. of Transportation and the planning office have all testified in support of the project in front of the state Land Use Commission in recent months.

Civil Beat recently reported on the reversal in administration positions. 

But at least one department isn’t stepping in line, as one reader pointed out. 

Gary Hooser, director of the Office of Environmental Control, submitted written testimony last July opposing the development, saying it would be “a mind-boggling direct contradiction of State values and priorities.”

Should the State LUC authorize the conversion of 1,554 acres of prime agricultural land presently under intense cultivation of food crops to urban use, while at the same time the State is acknowledging a shortage of producing agricultural lands and making as a priority the expansion of food production and the protection of prime agricultural lands – it would represent a huge reversal in our efforts to achieve some meaningful progress on this issue and a mind- boggling direct contradiction of State values and priorities.