Members of the Mililani/Waipi'o/Melemanu Neighborhood Board are taking the first step toward once again getting involved in Castle & Cooke Homes Hawaii's attempt to win a key approval for its Koa Ridge housing project in Central O'ahu.

The board last week voted unanimously to allow its chairman, Richard Poirier, to submit to the state Land Use Commission a "notice of intent to file" for intervenor status in the application process. Castle & Cooke is seeking to reclassify about 766 acres to the north and east of the Waipi'o Costco that would allow the home builder to develop up to 5,000 homes.

The neighborhood board's request comes after a similar notice was issued last month by the Sierra Club Hawai'i Chapter, also seeking intervenor status.

If approved as intervenors in the application process, the board and the Sierra Club would have the right to fully present their concerns about the planned project, cross-examine witnesses and subpoena witnesses. They would also have the right to make recommendations.

The neighborhood board has voiced concerns about traffic and school capacity, while the Sierra Club has outright opposed the project, arguing that it eliminates prime agricultural lands and poses environmental impacts.

Both parties were granted intervenor status the first time Castle & Cooke petitioned to reclassify its Koa Ridge parcels. While the commission approved that petition in June 2002, a lawsuit filed by the Sierra Club nullified the approval in September 2003 by arguing that an environmental assessment should have been completed before the land use change.

Poirier said last week that intervenor status allowed the neighborhood board to better explain its arguments to the commission. Previously, that resulted in some of the board's recommendations being incorporated into the commission's approval, particularly with respect to schools, he said.

The Sierra Club, in its June 16 notice of intent filing, said the Sierra Club's intervention the first time around resulted in the Hawai'i Supreme Court's final determination that the developer's petition required an environmental assessment.

Carleton Ching, Castle & Cooke vice president of government and community relations, said the planned intervention by the two parties "is part of the process. The good part of the process is it's open, and everyone can look at it."

Castle & Cooke's purpose is to "provide homes for Hawai'i families," Ching said. "That's always our guiding purpose."

The company has tentatively projected a 2010 start for home construction with the first houses expected to be occupied in 2012.