When he gets home now, Holter usually stays there. Instead of taking his wife to the movies, they rent a DVD. Instead of going out to dinner in Lahaina, they eat at home more. Instead of working out at a 24-hour fitness center in town, he visits a neighborhood yoga studio.

"A lot of things that originally brought me here are completely gone now," Holter says. "The frustration level is very high."

It's a refrain you hear again and again these days around the state. In 'Ewa Beach, Hawai'i Kai, Kapolei, Kailua, Kona, Mililani, Makakilo, Maui and elsewhere, residents are worried that unchecked growth is damaging the quality of life in the Islands.

Statistics show that overall growth in the state has been relatively slow in the past decade, but that's small comfort to the tens of thousands of people feeling squeezed by bedroom communities expanding rapidly without new schools, roads, local jobs and other basic needs.

Now people in some of those areas have started to fight back, calling for change in the way communities are built and linked together:

• In Central O'ahu, two neighborhood boards have approved "manifestos" calling for a halt to new housing developments until the infrastructure is in place to support them.
• In Makakilo, longtime residents tired of increasing traffic congestion are banding together to press officials for more roads and to oppose a planned development in the hilltop neighborhood.
• In Hawai'i Kai, where thousands of new homes have been built or are planned, residents are jamming community meetings to voice their concerns and flooding the neighborhood with banners from "Liveable Hawai'i Kai Hui."
• In West Hawai'i, Native Hawaiians, small-business owners and environmentalists successfully sued to stop work on the 1,550-acre Hokuli'a development until it gets all necessary government approvals.

Fighting back

While there's near-unanimous sentiment that something needs to change, opinions vary widely on what to do. Some suggest moratoriums on new growth. Others take a more measured approach, such as smart-growth policies and "concurrency," a buzzword that supporters describe as meaning infrastructure should be built with new housing, not afterward.

Planners, developers and politicians say the smart-growth movement — which emphasizes self-sufficient communities that reduce the need for long commutes — makes good sense, but a moratorium on growth would put the brakes on a statewide economy just emerging from a decade-long slump.

Statistics show growth has been relatively flat statewide for the past decade. The gross state product (a common economic indicator) and population have risen relatively slowly in the past 10 years.

"Calling for moratoriums at a time when Hawai'i is just starting to come out of the doldrums just doesn't make sense," said Honolulu Planning and Permitting Director Eric Crispin.

Others note that long-term policy decisions have pushed new housing development into a few areas clustered around Central and Leeward O'ahu, the south shore of Maui and the west side of the Big Island, without providing money for accompanying infrastructure.

It's in these areas that the complaints are loudest.

"All people really want is a house, a store, a school and a road to get out of the area in a reasonable amount of time," said Laura Brown, a Mililani Neighborhood Board member who was active in the challenge to a Mililani-Mauka project known as Koa Ridge. "People are just looking to make sure the basics are in place before they move in, but they don't seem to be able to get even that."

Developers respond

Morning commuters from Hawai'i Kai have watched homes multiply on Lunalilo Home Road. Thousands of new homes are planned in the area, leading residents to organize for a say in future development. Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser

"Most developers put in everything — including curbs, gutter, sidewalks, drainage and homes," he said. "The common complaints about concurrence deal with traffic and schools, things we don't have any control over. The government hasn't stepped up to provide those things. That causes some of the frustration."

Uchida said builders simply have been trying to meet pent-up demand for affordable homes while interest rates are low and land is available.

"Home ownership is still a fundamental step for the middle class, and right now everybody has more buying power. Everybody is getting in line waiting for a home," he said.

The road to Hawai'i's growth problems has been paved with good intentions and potholed by poor implementation, according to planners, politicians and environmental activists.

"The plans always sound good on paper, but as it goes along you always start to see the little wheelings and dealings that cause the problems," said Brown, of the Mililani Neighborhood Board. "People buy into a community based on what they've been told, only to find out that it's something very different. That feels like a breach of contract, so they get angry."

Many of the best plans get subverted at the practical level when developers are able to negotiate their way around zoning rules and other restrictions, said Gary Gill, director of development for the Sierra Club in Hawai'i.

"Five votes on the County Council can change anything in a plan," Gill said. "Every single time, when the rubber hits the road, the politicians end up accommodating the developers. It's always just one more project, just one more project. How many more projects can we accept before it's too late?"

Failed model

For some smart-growth advocates, the biggest disappointment has been Kapolei, which was supposed to become O'ahu's Second City: an urban area that offered jobs where people lived. In the first 10 years after ground-breaking in 1990, the area's population rose to almost 75,000, while the number of available jobs grew to about 14,000.

"It's more like the Second Suburb," Gill said.

At a recent city-sponsored smart-growth session that focused on Kapolei, several national experts said Kapolei leaders needed to refocus their efforts on developing an urban core, and connecting it better to residential areas. They noted that most of the development in the city center resembles suburban strip malls more than urban densities.

"I wouldn't say it's been a failure, but they've only got another year or two to get things straightened out," said Jim Charlier, a Colorado consultant on transportation planning.

No. 1 complaint

If there's a theme running through all the growth complaints, at least on O'ahu, it's the H-1 Freeway, the travel corridor from Wai'anae to Hawai'i Kai. More than 230,000 people use the H-1 every day, and few of them enjoy the experience.

"Amazingly, it's the catalyst that ties everyone together," said Keoni Dudley, a Makakilo resident lobbying for an end to new housing in the Leeward area until more roads are put in place.

In Honolulu, commuters are expected to push the freeway well past its capacity even during nonpeak hours. The number of trips taken by residents and visitors is expected to increase 27 percent by 2025, when the number of daily miles driven will reach 17.6 million. Roads will be so clogged, the time spent stuck in traffic will add up to 284,565 hours per day, a 53 percent increase over today's rate.

"It used to be backed up every once or twice a week," said Dudley, who moved to Makakilo in 1979 and commutes to his teaching job in 'Aiea. "Now it takes a miracle to have a good day."

It's a similar story in North and South Kona, where the population grew about 24 percent between 1990 and 2000, while traffic on portions of the Queen Ka'ahumanu Highway increased by more than 50 percent.

Residential growth in Central and Leeward O'ahu will only exacerbate the problem. At least 15,000 more housing units are planned for the area in the next few years.

"It's an ugly, intolerable situation. People are inching their way along every morning and every night, and they look at one another and get angry," Dudley said. "Then they look up and see another housing development being built somewhere along the road, and wonder how much worse it can get."

It may very well get worse before it gets better, as low interest rates, booming economies and newly available agricultural land have some developers scrambling to add projects. On Maui, for example, more than 12,000 units are proposed from Olowalu to Kapalua.

Resources strained

It's not just traffic. Many residents say the growing areas have too few schoolrooms, and new ones aren't being built quickly enough. The suburban sprawl also raises questions about the well-being of Hawai'i's environment and its people.

Water consumption is at an all-time high. So are electric utility sales. Agriculture land use is at an all-time low. More than 1 million cars are registered in the state.

Health and environment issues are among the concerns raised by people calling for moratoriums. Several national studies found recently that people living in counties marked by sprawling development are likely to walk less, weigh more and suffer from high blood pressure.

"What I see happening is horrible," said Maui Realtor Tara Grace. "The mentality that gives us sprawling developing is stripping our soul."

Reach Mike Leidemann at 525-5460 or mleidemann@honoluluadvertiser.com.