LIHU'E, Kaua'i — Mayor Bryan Baptiste yesterday announced a program to build up to 575 lower-cost housing units on state land in four Kaua'i communities.

Baptiste said the proposal is to transfer several tracts of state-owned land to the county. That would include 11.7 acres next to the Hawaiian Homes development in Kekaha, 59 acres on the bluff next to Waimea Heights in Waimea, 28.4 acres near the intersection of Ka'apuni and Olohena roads in Kapa'a, and 1.7 acres in Anahola.

Homes would be built for people with income levels that are below to slightly more than the Kaua'i median income for a family of four, which is about $59,000. All the house lots would be issued on leased land, or homes would be issued for rent.

The project, dubbed Project Mana'olana, or Project Hope, is in its infancy, but the mayor said the first homes could be ready in three years.

Baptiste said surveys will be taken around the island to determine whether rental or owned housing is more appropriate, and what the prices should be.

Potential owners of Project Mana'olana homes would be required to take one of the county's homeowner education classes.

One feature of the program is to ensure that the affordable homes stay affordable, and while specific restrictions have not been established, the mayor said they might include buy-back clauses or limiting the increases in subsequent sales prices to the inflation rate.

Baptiste said that while the restrictions will limit a family's ability to use increasing home prices as way to step up to a higher-cost home, Project Mana'olana is not an investment project but a housing program.

"In talking with people across the island about housing opportunities, so many of them felt that there is no way they or their children would ever be able to afford a home on Kaua'i. I felt compelled to create rays of hope for our residents," he said.

The median price for a single-family home on Kaua'i in June was $699,500.