In a surprising move, the owners of Aloun Farms have come out in support of a controversial large-scale development in Ewa that would displace their farm and its 180 employees.

The proposed 11,750 home master-planned community, known as Hoopili, is being considered by the state Land Use Commission, which will decide in coming months whether it will be allowed to move forward.

At its core, the debate is over whether the state can afford to give up 1,500 acres of prime ag land for largely urban uses. Aloun Farms now leases about 1,100 of those acres.

Alec Sou, who owns the farm with his brother Mike, submitted testimony to the commission this week saying that they had already secured an alternative site for their farming operation, which produces a wide range of produce.

“This will come as a surprise to many but Aloun Farms supports the development of Hoopili,” wrote Sou, in a letter dated January 17. “We have worked for D.R. Horton to come up with an orderly, long term transition of our farm land.”

Sou told Civil Beat Thursday that they had entered into a lease agreement with a landowner in central Oahu for 400 acres of farm land, with the option of increasing the amount of land to 1,000 acres. He would not disclose the name of the landowner or when the lease would start, but said it would begin in the next 15 years.

Aloun Farms’ public support of the project is a shock to Hoopili opponents who have made the displacement of the farm a central focus of their argument against the development. Friends of Makakilo, the Sierra Club and Sen. Clayton Hee have all intervened in hearings before the commission to try to stop it.

“I freely admit it disappoints me to see a letter like this,” Hee told Civil Beat. “But it strengthens my resolve that this is about saving prime ag land and not about any particular individual or any particular farm, from a policy point of view.”

If Hoopili proceeds, Aloun Farms will be phased out gradually over 20 years. However, according to Sou’s testimony to the LUC, they will be able to maintain their warehouse and vegetable processing plant on the property indefinitely.

Cameron Nekota, a vice president at D.R. Horton, the landowner and developer, said that the company was currently in negotiations to extend the lease, but wouldn’t comment on how long the Sou brothers would be allowed to keep the processing plant on the property.

“This has always been a part of a transition that was orderly and that they knew about, and we’ve always kept them appraised of what we are doing,” said Nekota. “This is just another step forward in our relationship.”

Aloun Farms has been aware that the property was slated for development since the land was leased in 1996.

Alec Sou told Civil Beat that he supported the project because of the difficult economy.

“I do support it from the standpoint of job creation,” Sou said. “We have been in such a bad slump for so long, we don’t know when the next economic boom will be.”

Hoopili is projected to support more than 7,000 jobs during its 20-year build out.

Sou rebuffed any suggestion that the brothers had been pressured into supporting Hoopili by Horton, which has been battling criticism that the project would not only displace important ag lands, but lead to increased traffic on the leeward side of the island and contribute to urban sprawl.

The impact that Aloun Farm’s testimony will have on the Land Use Commission is unclear.

Hee said that he didn’t think it would hurt the case of opponents, who have stressed the importance of growing local food. Hawaii currently imports up to 90 percent of its food despite having optimal year-round growing conditions.

“The fact that food security is an important issue that won’t go away, only underscores the importance of saving prime ag land regardless,” said Hee. “People are saying there is a lot of ag land. I’ve never disputed that. It’s just that those other ag lands are absent of water, and the Hoopili land has water.”

Sou said they were grateful for the outpouring of support for their farm, but that they wanted to let people know that their operations would continue.

“We needed to make things quite clear that we have been producing and we will continue to produce,” he said. “There are a lot of dynamics in the works right now with the state of Hawaii to make prime ag land available that has been sitting fallow for many, many years.”

You can read Alec Sou’s testimony to the Land Use Commission below: