Kailua-Kona condo OK’d;
beach access assured

By Rod Thompson
Star-Bulletin

KAILUA-KONA -- A Hawaii County Planning Commission decision opens the way for a controversial shoreline condominium in Kona, but also assures beach access.

The commission granted a shoreline management area permit for the four-story, 21-unit structure planned by SoBay Hawaii Inc. a mile south of Kailua Bay.

Mike Varney, chairman of the Honl's Beach Association, yesterday called the condominium a bad project, saying the 2/3-acre site should be left open as Kona grows.

But Varney also recognized that the developer "has bent over backwards" to assure access.

As a condition of the shoreline permit, the commission last week required the narrow southern portion of the property to be dedicated as a conservation easement.

That would assure permanent and legitimate beach access, said SoBay attorney Randy Vitousek.

It also adds to public use a 40-foot width of sandy land between the present strip of public beach and Alii Drive.

Another condition of the shoreline permit is that SoBay will seek another permit to move the building site on the wider, northern part of the property an extra 10 feet inland from the beach.

Two old houses on the property will be demolished.

Controversy focused on a badly damaged seawall fronting the southern part of the property.

Opponents argued that the seawall was mostly gone, that waves wash inland of the wall site and that a new property line farther inland should be determined.

SoBay wanted the wall at least recognized, if not rebuilt.

That controversy first went to Circuit Court and then to mediation, which failed to come to a conclusion.

The agreement on a conservation easement seems to resolve that dispute. "SoBay is not anxious to repair the wall," Vitousek said.

Varney said his group has circulated a petition, signed by 2,200 people, urging the county to buy the site and keep it open.

But the cost -- $2.2 million in 1990 -- may be too high for the cash-strapped county.

Another proposal was for a land swap. But Vitousek said that idea never went beyond the tentative stage.