Concerns about overdevelopment on Oahu’s North Shore have only intensified in the 10 years since community protests helped scuttle plans to build a major shopping center just across from Sharks Cove. Now that the 2.7-acre parcel has changed hands, some area residents are understandably worried that the new landowner will propose projects that similarly threaten the rural lifestyle they cherish.

The risks of overbuilding are real, and include the potential to worsen already severe traffic along Kamehameha Highway in that area and to harm the fragile marine ecosystems that thrive in the ocean directly across the highway from the parcel.

Residents are wise to galvanize early to promote appropriate use of this site, which is zoned, after all, for limited commercial use, before the new owner finalizes development plans. A dense retail complex catering to the tourist market — as the 53-store mall proposed a decade ago would have — is simply not right for this coastal acreage, which is now largely undeveloped save for a food truck, surf shop and few other businesses tucked among the grass and trees, adjacent to the neighborhood grocery store.

In contrast to that despised mall proposal, some residents would welcome a low-rise, small-scale project that focuses on the needs of the local community — development designed to meet existing demand rather than to attract hordes of visitors to the area. The new landowner has been reassuring in that regard so far, a posture that could help avoid the community upheaval the earlier proposal wrought.

A company called Hanapohaku LLC paid $5.5 million for the parcel, according to property records. Andrew Yani, a principal of Hanapohaku and of local solar power company Bonterra Solar, told Star-Advertiser business writer Andrew Gomes that plans for the property have not been solidified. "We are giving a lot of thought to what is most needed to serve the needs of the North Shore community."

Whatever the developer proposes should be in keeping with the parcel’s existing B-1 neighborhood business zoning, which according to the city’s land-use ordinance applies to relatively small areas that serve the daily retail and other business needs of the surrounding population. Traffic to such stores is intended to occur along local streets, not along major travel routes or on a large-scale basis.

These zoning requirements are appropriate for the parcel across from Sharks Cove and in keeping with the other neighborhood businesses along that stretch of scenic coastline, just mauka of Kamehameha Highway.

The previous landowner’s proposal, called Pupukea Village, ignited such an outcry precisely because it was so out of step with those requirements, envisioning as it did a $17 million shopping center that included dozens of stores scattered throughout five buildings, underground parking for 200 cars and space for commercial buses to drop off tourists shuttled in from Waikiki.

While a small cadre of activists led the protests a decade ago, rural Oahu residents today seem even more aware of the need to preserve their rapidly vanishing country lifestyle. The successful push to persuade the owners of Turtle Bay Resort to limit future expansion and preserve Kawela Bay through the use of a conservation easement is evidence of that.

Likewise, the new owners of the parcel near Sharks Cove should engage the neighbors before deciding how to use the land in a way that meets the community’s needs, allows a profit on the investment and does not harm the priceless natural resources situated just across the road.