Hawaii Kai height
limit draws fire

A developer wants
60 feet; some residents
want it reduced to 40

By Gordon Y.K. Pang
Star-Bulletin

The proposed East Honolulu Development Plan doesn't go far enough when it reduces the maximum allowable height for medium-density buildings from 150 feet to 60 feet, some Hawaii Kai residents say.

Hawaii Kai Neighborhood Board member Bob Fowler said the plan should have set a height limit of 40 feet.

The revised plan -- which covers an area from the eastern border of Kahala to Hawaii Kai -- goes before a special Planning Commission meeting at 6:30 p.m. July 1 at the Hahaione Elementary School cafeteria.

After the commission makes a recommendation, it will be sent to the City Council for consideration.

Fowler said the 60-foot limit was chosen to help Coastal Rim Properties Inc. develop a 503-unit complex on about 13.8 acres of land between Hawaii Kai Drive and Kaluanui Street, near the Hawaii Kai Recreational Center.

"You cannot put 503 units on that parcel with anything under a 60-foot height limit," Fowler said.

Fowler and others say the draft development plan shown to area representatives in November referred to allowing two- to three-story town houses but was silent on actual heights.

The final draft, released last month, allows "two- or three-story town house(s) or low-rise apartment buildings with a maximum height of 60 feet."

Board member Dick Baker said a 40-foot limit should be enough to accommodate a two- to three-story building.

Baker said the view of Hawaii Kai's ridge line would be obscured with a 60-foot limit. It "would allow you to build a six-story building, which would create a canyon effect along the drive past Keahole Drive toward Mariner's Ridge," he said.

Opponents note that the Land Utilization Department, on the advice of the Planning Department, has initiated a zoning change that would reduce the project site's height limit but still allow 60-foot-high buildings.

Planning Director Patrick Onishi denied charges of favoritism for the developer. The administration is moving ahead with the zoning change to be consistent with recommendations in the development plan, he said.

A 60-foot limit would allow Coastal Rim Properties and landowner Maunalua Associates to retain their right to build the number of units allowed under the site's A-2 medium-density apartment designation, but no more, he added.

Onishi said his department is recommending that other sections of Hawaii Kai owned by Maunalua Associates stay in preservation or conservation, against the landowner's wishes.

Mayor Jeremy Harris on Friday promised to drive out to Hawaii Kai this past weekend to look into the issue.

On the surface, however, "dropping (the height limit) doesn't look like it's catering to the whims of anybody," Harris said.