Kailua building rule
is cited

Two residents demand that a garage
stick to the town’s height limit

Two Windward Oahu residents have asked the city to reconsider two height exemptions granted for a three-level Kailua Road parking garage that is set to be completed in early September.

In their Aug. 9 petition to the city for a declaratory ruling on the issue, Don Bremner and Libby Tomar said the garage need not exceed Kailua's 40-foot height limit, and its height exemptions should be rescinded.

Current designs show two points on the structure exceed the limit. One peaks at 47 feet tall, while another stands three feet shorter, at 44 feet.

Kaneohe Ranch Co., which manages 550 acres in Kailua for the Castle Family Trusts and the Harold K.L. Castle Foundation, is building the 436-stall parking garage behind Longs Drug. Miles Nishijima, assistant vice president in charge of asset management at the company, said the height exemptions were needed to accommodate rooftop stairwell and elevator access.

"Both of those are the corner elements," he said. The parking garage will be "aesthetically" similar to surrounding buildings, he said.

He added that any change to the building's height at this point would "seriously affect" its construction.

But Bremner, a 35-year Kailua resident, said the first level of the structure could have had a shorter ceiling -- it now stands at 17 feet tall -- to meet the height requirements.

"We, and the public, have relied on the LUO (city Land Use Ordnance) to mean what it says," Bremner and Tomar wrote in their petition. Ordinance provisions "should not be liberally interpreted to trigger a height exemption, particularly when the building design offers room to adhere to the prescribed height limit."

Bremner also said yesterday that he contacted Kaneohe Ranch about the issue about two weeks ago but got no response.

"We asked them to make a community gesture by reconfiguring the design on the garage so they could get under the height limit," he said.

"We want to establish an atmosphere of conformity to the requirements as opposed to not doing that."

Once the city receives the petition, officials have 60 days to make a ruling.

Bremner and Tomar have also challenged a city decision to allow an auto dealer to store new and used cars on the top level of the parking garage.

In that petition to the city, Bremner said storing the cars in the lot would violate a city ordinance stipulating that goods and material storage is restricted to industrial zones. A ruling on the issue is expected early next month, Bremner said.