The crown jewel of Waikiki development is the Hilton Hawaiian Village,
which has a lush, park-like atmosphere in spite of its size, with
more than 2,452 hotel rooms with 400 more on the way.
Photos by Craig Kojima, Star-Bulletin

The mayor wants to open the district to redevelopment; opponents say his plan will lead to higher densities

It's inevitable under Mayor Jeremy Harris' plans to redevelop Waikiki, say a key City Council member and opponents to the scheme.

But Harris' top planners say his proposed amendments to the Waikiki Special District leave the question open - and that it'll be up to the City Council to keep, bust or raise the city's Waikiki hotel room cap, enacted in 1992.

Council members are on track for a review next year of land uses in Honolulu. Meanwhile, the politically sensitive issue of Waikiki simmers.

"If (the Waikiki Special District amendments) went through, that would be a hell of a boom," said Waikiki Councilman Duke Bainum. "And if the hotel room cap is lifted, then we'd have a tsunami."

Harris' proposals include allowing qualifying sites to increase building densities by up to 20 percent under a Planned Development application. In exchange, the city would extract things such as more open space at ground level.

Of the 10 sites identified by the city Department of Land Utilization as likely candidates for this, only one - the Waikikian - has existing hotel rooms. And while only half the sites are in areas designated for resort-mixed use, that doesn't preclude landowners of the other parcels to come asking for hotels, too.

To some, that means development densities would surely increase since new rooms would sprout where few currently exist.

"They're increasing the area where hotels can be built," said Donald Bremner, a planner and major figure in creating the original Waikiki Special District 20 years ago.

The Council set a limit of 32,800 hotel rooms for Waikiki in 1992. While some say the cap was supposed to an interim measure, the city has not approved any new Waikiki hotel rooms since.

Depending on the time of year, Planning Director Cheryl Soon said, existing inventory falls just above or below the cap. The number fluctuates because of "transient units" that have daily, weekly or monthly rates depending on the season.

Unlike Bremner and Kim, both Soon and DLU Director Patrick Onishi said more density would not automatically translate into more hotel rooms.

Developers, for instance, could forgo building hotel rooms on land already classified as "resort-mixed use," Onishi said.

Also, landowner-developers eligible for the 20 percent increase would still need to gain Planned Development approval, then try to obtain other land use permits.

"At this point in time, (developers) cannot count on the room cap changing," Soon said. "We have not made such a proposal" and don't expect to until the issue goes before the Council next year.

Kim said if Harris is unprepared to discuss the issue now, "we can always defer the plan until (his administration) comes in with something that addresses the cap."

Bainum warned that anything leading to more hotel rooms could jeopardize Harris' other initiatives, particularly two which would bring higher densities to Waikiki.

Said Bainum: "It would stiffen community opposition to one or both of the measures."

The plan is generating debate even before its first hearing.

The Hilton Hawaiian Village's open-space feeling is what planners want.

Public meeting scheduled for April 16.