Just how much real power does a neighborhood board have?

Can our neighborhood boards exert any real authority or are they simply symbols of community engagement and rubber stamps?

These were the questions we asked ourselves after attending a recent Hawaii Kai Neighborhood Board meeting.

Avalon Development Co. LLC, engaged by a South Korean company, Hanwha Engineering and Construction, provided an overview of the building plans for one of the last open plots of land in the area.

This lot is at one of the busiest intersections in the neighborhood. It is where many very heavily used roads converge: the driveway into the condominium complex Kalele Kai, and roads leading to and from the Safeway Shopping Complex and Costco/Hawaii Kai Shopping Center, Kaiser High School and Kalama Valley.

The developer has obtained approval for two 90-foot towers — 10 stories each — at 7000 Hawaii Kai Drive. The fact that Kalele Kai, the complex across the street, is just six stories high provides some sense of how this building will alter the landscape and sightlines/viewplanes.

Traffic and sewage studies have been done, permits are in place and construction, we were told, would start shortly. In fact, a crane is already onsite and a manager will soon be, too. We were invited to direct our concerns to him.

But what about concerns before building begins?

Hawaii Kai Neighborhood Board Chairman Greg Knudsen made it clear that he thought the board would be getting an initial briefing on the project.

This, he anticipated, would be followed by a final presentation, incorporating feedback.

Instead, he said he was hearing what sounded like a fait accompli. He had with him an agreement that had been reached with earlier developers regarding the building height that would be allowed on that site: 70, not 90, feet. No attempt had been made to seek approval for deviations.

Apologizing for the "misstep," Avalon’s CEO suggested that the community was getting a newer and better product.

We heard about generous setbacks from the street and more open spaces than required.

We were told that the affordable rental units "may help bring young people back to where they grew up," that "a troubled project had been brought back to life," and that the developer was delivering a significant benefit to the community.

Presumably its return on investment will also be significant.

Some residents expressed serious concern about what 215 market-rate apartment rentals and 54 affordable units with nearly 600 parking stalls would do to traffic. Various options were floated for how traffic could flow, but there was no sense that the issue had been thoroughly looked into and addressed.

What was concluded from the traffic and sewage studies remains unclear. We heard nothing that allayed our concerns about the impact of 7000 Hawaii Kai Drive.

Which brings us back to the frustration so clearly expressed by Knudsen.

Neighborhood boards have been touted by the Neighborhood Commission Office of the City and County as a way to leverage the concerns of the community. Perhaps.

If plans can be changed and permits obtained without a green light from the neighborhood board, even where a prior agreement exists, how real is that leverage? Perhaps it’s time to ask what other options the community has when the entity that supposedly speaks for their concerns is ignored and business does what business does, with the blessing of other arms of government.

Shouldn’t there be some room for negotiation on the height of what looks set to be two very tall boxes with as many as 600 additional cars on a very busy corner?