"We stopped this project 15 years ago," said Sen. Donna Ikeda, among several elected officials attending. "The same arguments that prevented it from being built 15 years ago are valid today...We don't want it, we don't need it, and we're not going to stand for it."

An overflow crowd of about 400 people jammed the school cafetorium for the meeting sponsored by City Council man John Henry Felix and the project's developer, National Housing Corp. of Hawaii, a subsidiary of National Housing Corp. of Columbus, Ohio. National Housing wants to build a cemetery on a 95-acre parcel in the back of the valley.

In the crowd was former Mayor Frank Fasi, who proposed that the city buy the property through condemnation to block the project. Felix said he would pursue the idea.

Also at the meeting was Mayor Jeremy Harris, who pledged opposition to the cemetery plan.

State Rep. Gene Ward also attended.

Felix, chairman and chief executive officer of the Borthwick Group/SCI, began the meeting by disassociating himself from the project's developer.

"I am not now, nor have I ever been associated with National Housing Corp. of Hawaii in any way," he said.

Borthwick two years ago reportedly proposed a funeral home at another Aina Haina site but the project was rejected.

Felix said a conditional use permit to build a cemetery at the same site was requested but denied by the city Department of Land Utilization in 1981.

In 1983, the City Council adopted a new Development Plan for East Honolulu. In 1984, the site was rezoned from residential to preservation, but in 1986, the city's Land Use Ordinance was adopted, making the parcel P-2 Preservation with a cemetery as a principal permitted use and no longer requiring a conditional use permit.

On May 30, 1996, tentative approval was granted by the city Department of Land Utilization for the present developer to subdivide the parcel for the cemetery, if construction of improvements, utilities and drainage facilities meet city standards.