A Campbell Estate partnership is moving ahead with a long-held plan to develop a hillside residential community between Makakilo and the Waimanalo Gulch landfill.

The proposed project with 4,100 homes, dubbed Makaiwa Hills, is one of the last and largest master-planned communities envisioned for the Kapolei region, and would expand the designated "second city" of O'ahu.

But there is much concern over housing growth and the traffic such a project would bring to a severely congested part of O'ahu playing catch-up on road expansion that has not kept pace with residential and commercial development.

"Everybody's concern is traffic," said Maeda Timson, chairwoman of the Makakilo/Kapolei/ Honokai Hale Neighborhood Board.

Campbell Estate estimated that Makaiwa Hills would be developed over more than 10 years, starting in 2009 and finishing in 2020.

The estate said the project is consistent with the city's 'Ewa Development Plan, and would represent a fraction of the region's estimated population growth from 84,000 today to 96,000 by 2010 and 141,000 by 2025.

More residents, the estate said, are necessary to attract businesses that will make Kapolei a full-fledged city that helps reduce the need for 'Ewa residents to commute into Honolulu.

Makaiwa Hills also would create 1,100 nonconstruction jobs of a projected 40,000 new jobs in the Kapolei region over the next 20 years, the estate said.

Estate spokeswoman Theresia McMurdo emphasized that plans are preliminary and that community feedback will be solicited to help refine plans.

"It's very preliminary," she said. "It's at the very beginning of the planning for the project."

The proposed project is one of several long-term communities planned for the Kapolei region. Others include 4,041 homes at the University of Hawai'i-West O'ahu campus, 11,000 to 13,000 at Ho'opili and more than 7,000 at various projects in Kapolei.

Envisioned on 1,781 acres among several gulches, Makaiwa Hills is slated for a wide range of housing from luxury to below-market affordable units, neighborhood commercial centers and an elementary school site. About half the property would remain as open space with some used for recreation.

Based on past city practices, it is expected that about 30 percent, or 1,230 homes, will be affordable under guidelines for low- to moderate-income families, though the actual number has to be negotiated between the developer and city.

Three major roads would connect the planned community to the H-1 Freeway at the Kapolei Interchange, to Farrington Highway between the Honokai Hale subdivision and Kalaeloa Boulevard, and to Makakilo at Nohona Street.

Timson, who lives on Nohona, said the connection to Makakilo would provide a second route to Makakilo that residents have long desired. "We only have one way in and one way out," she said. "But for me, somebody who lives on (Nohona), I'm not sure how I feel about that."

Honokai Hale resident and neighborhood board member Jane Ross said her neighborhood has general concerns about traffic and drainage impacts from development of Makaiwa Hills, but that she reserves comment until more details are presented.

"We're going to be very interested in seeing what it is and sharing our concerns and comments about it," she said.

In 1990, Campbell Estate pursued developing the property as a community of 2,130 upscale executive homes it likened to Wai'alae Iki, with a possible golf course and shopping center.

That version was rejected by the city in 1992, partly because of its focus on luxury housing.

A modified plan in 1993 called for 4,850 residences including 2,700 single-family homes priced from $375,000 to $1 million, 1,400 townhomes from $145,000 to $300,000 and 750 affordable rental apartments for families earning 50 percent to 80 percent of the median income.

The estate advanced the revised plan that same year when the state Land Use Commission designated the land for urban use. But a housing market decline stalled the project.

Three years ago, with O'ahu's housing market rebounding strongly, a city advisory committee identified part of the property, Makaiwa Gulch, as a potential site for a landfill, but instead chose to expand the present landfill at the neighboring Waimanalo Gulch.

Earlier this year, Campbell Estate created a joint venture company Makaiwa Hills LLC with an affiliate of La Jolla, Calif.-based firm Monarch Group, and transferred ownership of much of the project site to the partnership.

This week, the estate filed an environmental impact statement preparation notice containing preliminary data for Makaiwa Hills.

The project still needs a zoning change that would require City Council approval, and is subject to the environmental impact statement being accepted by the city Department of Planning & Permitting.

The city accepted a previous environmental analysis in 1991, but because the project is larger the developer is preparing a new analysis.

In the 1991 analysis, 34 archaeological and historic sites were identified on the property, including habitation structures, agricultural terraces and petroglyphs. The estate said its plan will reflect efforts to preserve significant sites.

Reach Andrew Gomes at agomes@honoluluadvertiser.com.