By Sophie Cocke 03/15/2012

Former Governor John Waihee strolled into a hearing room packed with a sea of orange shirts that read, “Hoopili Now!”

The political veteran, age 65, clad in dark blue jeans and black cowboy boots, exuded a casual confidence as he chatted with executives of D.R. Horton, Hoopili’s developer, as well as opponents of the proposed 12,000-home development in Ewa, which he was there to support.

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Thursday was one of the last days of testimony that began in October for the master-planned community that would displace about 1,500 acres of prime farmland, much of it under cultivation. And it was likely the most important day for intervenors in the case, which include Friends of Makakilo, the Sierra Club and state Sen. Clayton Hee.

Hee had enlisted not only Waihee, but former Gov. Ben Cayetano, who is currently running for mayor of Honolulu, to testify against the development. The political heavyweights are likely to be among the most persuasive witnesses in the case before the state Land Use Commission, which is expected to rule on D.R. Horton’s petition to reclassify the land from agricultural to urban by this summer.

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