The design of a planned nonprofit affordable housing complex at 'Ewa Villages is raising concerns for some neighbors and historic preservation organizations that the project will encroach on nearby property and vistas in the historic plantation community.

Objections to the project, called Franciscan Vistas Ewa, were made at a public hearing last week held to review a request for a city conditional-use permit for the project.

The developer, an affiliate of St. Francis Healthcare Systems, said it believes it can address the concerns, which mainly involve building height, architecture and how to widen a planned city road.

But resolving the issues could further delay the long-stalled plan for about 300 homes, including rentals for seniors, that the developer hopes it can finish in early 2008.

St. Francis Development Corp. initially announced plans in 2002 for 300 single-story affordable senior rentals, a community center and garden on 23 acres of city land.

The nonprofit, after financing difficulties, bought the property in 2003 with help from a federal grant and the Harry & Jeanette Weinberg Foundation. But design plans changed, in part because of rising construction costs, and now include a two-story complex of 207 senior rental apartments and 121 leasehold homes for sale to low- and moderate-income buyers.

A garden, community center, care services and offices are still part of the revised project.

The State Historic Preservation Division of the Department of Land and Natural Resources testified at the meeting that some architectural elements of the project don't match the historic character of homes and buildings in the plantation village, which is on state and national historic registers.

Tom Berg, president of the Ewa Historical Society, also said the project's second story would encroach on a vista from a historic plantation manager's house adjacent to the property.

A private school that leases land from the city next to the St. Francis property also worries that the city will approve a plan by the developer to use an 11-foot-wide strip of its school yard for a required road.

"We would like to continue our work undisturbed," said Steven Wygle, pastor and president of Lanakila Baptist Church & Schools, which has basketball, volleyball and baseball facilities in the area St. Francis is seeking for the road.

"We have some serious concerns about the impact on our school," Wygle said at the hearing. "It would financially cripple us."

Anastasia Keller-Collins, an assistant vice president for the Easter Seals Hawai'i Home Community Based Services Program at 'Ewa Villages, also expressed concern about the road affecting safe access to the program.

St. Francis proposed using an 11-foot strip of its property and 11-foot strip of neighboring property that is also part of the old plantation manager property for a road conforming to city standards.

The city, when it subdivided the property before selling it to St. Francis, retained a 44-foot-wide strip of land for the road based on minimum standards that changed in June 2001 to a 66-foot-wide strip. Included in the 66 feet are 15 feet of sidewalk and landscaping on both sides of a 36-foot-wide road.

City spokesman Bill Brennan said planners are examining whether public safety could be maintained by only requiring landscaping and a sidewalk on the St. Francis side of the planned road.

Pam Witty-Oakland, executive director of St. Francis Residential Care Community that owns the site, said she is confident that stakeholder concerns will be resolved.

Those who expressed concerns at the meeting all expressed general support for St. Francis providing affordable housing.

One speaker who has previously raised an objection to the project was Rep. Rida Cabanilla D-42 (Waipahu, Honouliuli, West Loch, 'Ewa), who believes St. Francis should not be allowed to reduce the number of senior rental apartments in its plan.

Under the revised plan, 207 rental apartments would be available to people 62 years or older. The 121 leasehold homes are to be sold to buyers earning less than 140 percent of the median income, or $99,820 for a family of four.

First priority to buy the homes would go to St. Francis employees, followed by city public safety workers and then the general public. Buyers cannot rent out their home, and St. Francis would have the first option to buy the home back for a price tied to the consumer price index rather than property values so that the nonprofit could resell it to another buyer at a below-market price.

Witty-Oakland said St. Francis is not required by the city to provide a certain amount of senior rentals or affordable housing. Because St. Francis used about $2 million in federal community block grant money to buy the property, at least 51 percent of units must be affordable, which is more than satisfied by the senior rentals.

The leasehold homes, a mixture of single-family homes and townhouses, also are not "market-price" homes, but will be workforce housing targeted to first-time buyers and families with seniors.

Reach Andrew Gomes at agomes@honoluluadvertiser.com.