The city's upcoming multibillion-dollar fixed-guideway transit project will have huge effects on the communities it will move through, and nowhere more so than in the areas immediately surrounding the roughly 20 planned transit stations stretching from East Kapolei to downtown.

Businesses, homes and other development can be expected to sprout up about a quarter- to a half-mile around the transit stations, potentially transforming what may now be sleepy bedroom communities into teeming new hubs of 24-hour activity.

Through a series of meetings sponsored by the city, the public will get a chance to say what they think should be included in the plans for those stations and surrounding areas.

At stake is the future of the communities' look and feel, experts said.

For example, successful areas with transit-oriented development, or TOD, provide a mix of uses that allow for people to live, work and play within walking distance of the stations.

"Many of the more successful TOD projects are multiple-story, mixed-use projects," said David Arakawa, a Waipahu native who is now executive director of the Land Use Research Foundation. "So you're not going to have one- or two-story single-family homes around there anymore. Around the station it's going to be built up. And that's going to be a change for Waipahu, too."

Henry Eng, the city's director of planning and permitting, agreed. "With transit, stations become a source of more customers, more tenants, more visitors," he said. "Therefore, more uses are offered in close proximity to take advantage of increased pedestrian activity."

Peter Flachsbart, an associate professor of urban and regional planning at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa, warned of what might happen if the community doesn't participate in the process.

"The planning process calls for participation among a number of stakeholders — planners, transit agencies, developers, bankers and the community," he said. "If the community doesn't show up, then something might be built that's not to their liking."

Flachsbart played a key role in putting together a position paper that describes the transit-oriented development experience in Mainland cities.

EACH STATION UNIQUE

Growth around a transit station is not automatic, Flachsbart said.

"You have to have a growing economy," he said. "If we suddenly dip into a recession, developers aren't going to build if housing is in a slump. You also have to have supportive policies."

City planners expect an overarching transit-oriented development ordinance to go before the City Council by the end of the year.

Arakawa said it's critical that those who wish to have a stake in the region's future have a say in its development.

"The areas surrounding these stations are definitely going to change," Arakawa said. "The people of Waipahu are going to be able to have their say."

Noting that the two stations are planned for very different parts of Waipahu, Arakawa said he doesn't expect the two regions to be developed in the same manner. "Every transit station is going to be unique," he said.

Longtime professional planner Lowell Chun, who has experience with both planned development and community services, said buy-in from everyone affected is important for the development process to work in each of the transit-stop regions.

"While there are some basic rules of thumb on what should go in the area around a transit stop, every neighborhood on O'ahu, as in any other place in the world, is different, with different people with different values and different goals and dreams," Chun said. "And going to the meetings is the people's opportunity to express that.

"If they're not there, someone else who may know very little about the area, how they live and what they care about, may do something they think is good for somebody else but which may not be."

He added: "It's important for what is built by anybody to resonate with the community that will be receiving it. I think that's key."

PARTICIPATION VITAL

Eng said Mayor Mufi Hannemann has stressed that the planning process should include input from all sides.

"From everyone we've spoken to on the Mainland — Denver, Portland, Seattle, San Francisco — a critical element of successful (transit-development) projects is continuous and inclusive community participation," Eng said. "And we're taking this advice very seriously."

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