The Kapolei skyline may grow taller under a plan approved by the Honolulu City Council.

The council decision allows developers to build as high as 150 feet on 13 city blocks in downtown Kapolei. An additional 10 blocks were given a new height limit of 120 feet.

Previously only six blocks were allowed to go as high as 150 feet.

The height limits, included in the latest version of the Kapolei Urban Design Plan and approved last week, are meant as a guideline for planners. Developers would still need to gain zoning approvals to reach such heights. But typically, zoning changes by the City Council have adhered to such guidelines.

Presently the tallest building in Kapolei is only 90 feet tall, but plans are on the drawing boards for structures that could go as high as 150 feet.

There seems to be consensus from all quarters that as the designated "Second City" of O'ahu, Kapolei should have a high-density, downtown core.

"I think everybody understands that urban core development is much better than urban sprawl," said West O'ahu Councilman Todd Apo. "So you take the right locations like downtown Kapolei and you increase the densities because that allows you to increase your commercial capacity and to increase your residential capacity without having to take up other areas of land that you don't really want to develop. That's what the new urban design plan is recognizing."

"The concept of Kapolei was always to have the central core denser," said Henry Eng, the city's director of planning and permitting. A concentrated job center is a plus for everyone on O'ahu because it means less need for Kapolei, 'Ewa and Leeward coast residents to make the long daily commute into Honolulu for employment, thus lowering the stress on the island's highways, Eng said.

"Kapolei is designed as a new city and as more office space is built, more people will be working out here," Eng said.

FROM FIELDS TO BUILDINGS

Once just sprawling fields of sugar cane and farm land on the way to Wai'anae, Kapolei was designated by the city and state as a planned community, and what was formerly the Estate of James Campbell, which has been succeeded by the James Campbell Co. and its subsidiary, Kapolei Property Development, was tasked with master planning the region decades ago.

David Rae, senior vice president for development at Kapolei Property Development, said that mandate allowed the developer to map out guidelines years in advance for what goes where, when and how.

"The way most cities have evolved ... they've just sort of come up," he said. "We think (the urban design plan) provides a vision for the future. It's not about what's happening today so much as what you want it to look like 50 to 100 to 150 years from now."

As a result, the entire discussion about building heights is largely conceptual, especially since the tallest building in Kapolei today is the State Office Building on Kamokila Boulevard and Ulu'ohia Street, at 90 feet — six stories in height.

Steve Kelly, Kapolei Property Development's development manager, noted that some of the blocks getting increased height limits already have buildings that likely won't be torn down for a while including Campbell's own corporate headquarters. "So what we're doing is really setting forth the vision for the ultimate redevelopment scenario on those," Kelly said.

But taller buildings are in the works. The Maryl Group, for instance, has talked about the possibility of building up to two towers of 150 feet in height across from Kapolei Hale. The Kapolei Pacific Center from Avalon Development is expected to have four towers of up to seven stories while the Kapolei City Plaza, being developed by California-based Kahl and Gouveia, is proposed to have a seven- and eight-story tower.

NEEDED DENSITY

Christine Camp, president and CEO of Avalon Development, said Kapolei needs the density envisioned in the design plan. "To become a city, it needs that kind of density to bring jobs and the critical mass in there," she said. "We believe that downtown needs to be higher in density to allow for the maximum number of jobs that can be moved there for it to become a second city."

Francis Oda, president and CEO of Group 70 International, which has been involved with the Kapolei urban plan for nearly two decades, said the plan incorporates taller buildings with shorter blocks and wider sidewalks designed to make the urban core more pedestrian friendly. Blocks in Kapolei average 350 feet by 350 feet, while blocks in downtown Honolulu average about 275 feet by 300 feet and blocks in San Francisco are about 375 feet by 375 feet, according to the design plan.

"We wanted a Hawaiian garden city, one that was sustainable and pedestrian- and family-friendly," Oda said. "And then we put residential in the city itself so people can live and walk to work."

There are no announced plans for residential buildings in the urban core but some can be expected soon, the planners said. Two major projects are under construction on the fringes of the core, the Lei Hano community for seniors and D.R. Horton Schuler's Mehana development that includes home office loft units.

Even Makakilo/Kapolei/Honokai Hale Neighborhood Board acting chairman Kioni Dudley, a community activist who has had his share of skirmishes with Kapolei developers, said he wholeheartedly endorses the plan.

"The greater the height, the less the sprawl," Dudley said. "I think that it's really important that we try not to cover more land than we have to."

Dudley said he also applauds the revised urban design plan's new emphasis on sustainability, including a push to integrate energy efficiency, recycling, water conservation.

Reach Gordon Y.K. Pang at gpang@honoluluadvertiser.com.