The hot topic for two West O'ahu neighborhood boards this month is the city's draft revision to the 'Ewa Development Plan, the document designed to provide broad guidance for growth and development in the region over the next decade.

The Makakilo/Kapolei/Honokai Hale Neighborhood Board is slated to discuss the draft plan at its meeting tonight. The legislative committee of the 'Ewa Neighborhood Board held a meeting on the plan Monday night and its full board will discuss it at its monthly meeting Dec. 11.

Comments on the draft are being collected by the Department of Planning and Permitting through Jan. 30. A final plan is expected to go to the Planning Commission in February before it goes to the Honolulu City Council for its final approval.

Rich Hargrave, 'Ewa Neighborhood Board chairman, encouraged the public to attend the hearings. Recommendations the board makes will depend largely on the input it receives from the public, he said.

"Once they weigh in, (the board) as the voice for the community will weigh in on that and ... direct that to the proper department hopefully for some changes," he said.

Maeda Timson, chairwoman of the Kapolei board, also encouraged the public to get informed. "It's important that people talk about the 'Ewa Development Plan so that people know what development of the area is all about," she said.

Those attending Monday's 'Ewa board legislative committee meeting raised a number of concerns.

For instance, the committee wants the full 'Ewa board to recommend that the Urban Growth Boundary be moved so that it excludes D.R. Horton/Schuler's planned Ho'opili community project, which calls for up to 11,750 residential units sandwiched between 'Ewa, Kapolei, Makakilo, Kunia and Waipahu. Concerns were raised about overdevelopment, traffic and the loss of agricultural lands.

Mike Jones, D.R. Horton's Schuler Division president, declined to comment on the issues raised, citing the need to analyze the specifics of the concerns raised. However, he said the mixed-use Ho'opili project is part of a larger plan for the area that includes a University of Hawai'i at West O'ahu campus and a housing development by the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands.

"We think it's a natural development cycle that should happen out there," he said.

The Ho'opili project must still gain a key approval from the state Land Use Commission. The panel is expected to begin hearings on the project in February.