Developer offers new
plan for Kona property
KAILUA-KONA, Hawaii >> New plans for a Kona property near the Kaloko-Honokohau National Historical Park scale back a previous design and provide a 128-acre coastal park with public parking and facilities, according to the developer.
Rutter Development Corp.'s plans for the 445-acre Kohanaiki property, which includes the popular surf and camp spot known as "Pine Trees," calls for a maximum of 500 homes and a championship golf course.
The Irvine, Calif.-based developer's plans also provide for the coastal park with more than 120 parking spaces and an 8,000-square-foot facility for a snack bar, restrooms and showers.
"We have a possible agreement," Mayor Harry Kim said. "If this goes through, this will be historic."
Community groups had protested when the former owner of the property, Japanese developer Nansay Hawaii, had proposed in the 1980s building two hotels, 1,150 homes, a 150-slip marina and a golf course. Kennedy-Wilson International, Rutter Development's partner, purchased the deed to the property after Nansay went bankrupt in the late 1990s.
Rutter's plans call for an average 680 feet of open space between private property lines and a shoreline with the closest home about 400 feet from the shoreline.
An area that developers had originally envisioned as a resort destination would be camping grounds, preserved anchialine ponds and historic sites and a coastal trail.
Jim Sogi, an attorney who worked on the agreement with Rutter on behalf of a group known as Na Keiki Hee Nalu, or Children of the Surf, said the public will be pleased with the results.
"This is an innovative, precedent-setting plan which should be used in all of Hawaii," he said.
Rutter Development is bound by the agreement to provide the shoreline park. The community would pay for a third of its upkeep, said Chief Executive Officer Ray Rutter.
"Everyone is going to walk out of here not quite satisfied, and I think that means everybody wins," he said.
Chris Yuen, Hawaii County planning director, said the county Planning Commission will discuss an application by Rutter for a Shoreline Management Area permit in October.
Rutter estimates engineering and permitting would take about 18 months to complete, with development of the community and park beginning shortly after that.
