KANE'OHE — About 200 people packed a meeting room last night to hear about a proposed cemetery expansion that some say will create more flooding issues, destroy historical sites and cause property values to fall.

The owner of Hawaiian Memorial Park is proposing to expand the cemetery on a 164.4-acre plot of conservation land it owns that abuts the graveyard and the Pikoiloa subdivision.

But before it can do that, cemetery owner Services Corp. International must get the land rezoned. SCI wants to rezone 56.6 acres of the property to urban use and develop 28 of those acres for cemetery use. The proposal also calls for creating a 20-lot subdivision on four acres near the Pohai Nani retirement facility.

The expansion proposal could add 28,000 new burial plots to the market at a time when O'ahu's cemeteries have fewer and fewer available grave sites.

Many residents were not swayed by the potential need for added cemetery plots.

Bettye Jo Harris, who has lived in Pikoiloa since 1965, said the expansion would affect at least 12 archaeological sites in the hillside that makes up most of SCI's property, disturb Hawaiian bird habitat there and potentially place residents in danger.

Harris said she has lived through several floods in the community since 1965, and has witnessed water gushing out of the hillside so hard that the culvert built to contain it couldn't, mud filling homes when tributaries overflowed, and a hillside that "broke open" and crushed a vacant home.

Since she lives next to the hillside, she said she fears for her life if the developer builds mausoleums above her home.

"If the hill cracks open, the mausoleums will fall on us," Harris said. "It could happen. It happened before."

Last night's meeting at Windward Community College was organized by the Kane'ohe Neighborhood Board and cemetery consultant company Helber, Hastert and Fee. Scott Ezer, a planner for the consulting company, said the cemetery owner hopes to use the meeting to discover the exact concerns neighbors have.

The expansion proposal is preliminary, Ezer said.

Organizers and people attending the meeting said they hoped residents would have a clearer understanding of the project once they hear details of the proposal.

Ezer said he was looking forward to explaining the plan in an "unfiltered" version. He was looking for specific concerns but mostly he wants to open dialogue with residents, he said.

Residents voiced concerns about traffic, crime and the loss of cultural sites and conservation land. Ezer tried to assure the group that the cemetery owner would preserve all significant cultural sites, that traffic would not increase by much, and that there would be little to no visual impact because buffer zones around the expanded cemetery would be planted with screening trees and foliage.

But residents were not convinced and applauded those who called for killing the project.

Resident Julie McCreedy said a zone change could set a precedent along the Windward coast.

"There's so little conservation land and green space available these days, that I think it's our obligation to try to protect and preserve it," she said. "Land is finite; once it's gone that's it. We got nowhere to go."

State Rep. Ken Ito, D-48th (Kane'ohe), who represents the area, said the proposed expansion would take conservation land away from the community.

"Hopefully we can stop this project," Ito said. "I'm against it."

Ty Hooper, a Namoku Street resident, said he appreciated that the consultant took the time to come to the meeting, but said the community's stance is strong.

"Our answer is going to be no," Hooper said. "It's going to be no tomorrow, and 20 years from now it's still going to be no."

Reach Eloise Aguiar at eaguiar@honoluluadvertiser.com.