Ka Iwi permit denial gets OK from residents
'Accessory use' of cabins cited in city's rejection of permit
Hawaii Kai residents who don't want 180 vacation cabins on a Ka Iwi Coast mountainside said yesterday they are pleased the city has rebuffed the developer's first request for a permit.
"I certainly hope it's over," Anthony Paresa, vice chairman of the Hawaii Kai Neighborhood Board, said last night. "I don't honestly see how they can do what they would like to do under the current zoning."
QRM, LLC, agent Aaron Eberhardt told the neighborhood board in June that his company wants to develop cabins on two separate tracts of Hawaii Kai land owned by Maunalua Associates Inc., of Walnut Creek, Calif. One overlooks the Hawaii Kai Golf Course near Makapuu Point and one is adjacent to the Queen's Gate residential area.
The value of the 181 acres of undeveloped land is about $2 million, according to the city Real Property Division.
More than 200 people packed the June 27 neighborhood board meeting, objecting to plans for clusters of 800-square-foot cabins with what QRM called "unobstructed ocean and mountain views."
In the "General Preservation District" for which the area is zoned, vacation cabins are permitted only as an "accessory use" in connection with outdoor recreation facilities, Henry Eng, director of the city Department of Planning and Permitting, said in a Sept. 1 letter to proposed project developer QRM. The letter was made public yesterday.
"As proposed, the outdoor recreational activities appear accessory to the vacation cabins," Eng wrote in a three-page letter to Eberhardt, explaining the city's rejection.
Eng wrote that if QRM resubmits its proposal for a permit, it should provide the city with:
» Evidence that outdoor recreational activities are the principal use of the land.
» Evidence that QRM is a developer, owner or lessee of the property.
» A description of how the development would mitigate concerns raised at the neighborhood board meeting.
» Details about the development's target market, length of guest stays, ownership and operation.
» How the site is suitable for the project in topography, infrastructure and natural features.
» How the project would not alter the character of the surrounding area.
» How the development would handle water, wastewater and storm water drainage.
» More detailed traffic studies.
» How the project will contribute to the "general welfare of the community at large or surrounding neighborhood."
Jeanette Hanson, Hawaii Kai Neighborhood Board treasurer, said the city's response to the developer is "definitely a good sign; however we don't know whether it's a 'win.'''
Hanson said she's concerned not only for her neighborhood, but whether allowing resort-like development on preservation land could set a precedent.
"This is so much development in East Honolulu," Hanson said. "It's really nice to have some virgin land left."
QRM's Eberhardt and Robert Gerrell signed the Aug. 21 application to the city for a minor conditional use permit for the land, which the city was to respond to within 10 days.
Neither Eberhardt nor Gerrell returned calls yesterday.
Gerrell was active in Chinatown redevelopment, including Maunakea Marketplace, Kekaulike Market and the Mendonca Building, and served in 1999 as chairman of Mayor Jeremy Harris' Downtown Chinatown Task Force.
"This is absolutely the wrong place to conceive of a development," Jeff Mikulina, director of the state Sierra Club chapter and a member of the city Planning Commission, said in July when the proposal surfaced. "You come around this gorgeous coastline, get to Sandy Beach and see this whole open space."
Paresa said: "I think the city is doing the right thing, treating the developer fairly. I don't think the developer is treating the community fairly."
