Finding land-use balance on Oahu involves constant push and pull between opposing forces. Sometimes, that dynamic tension easily favors one side; other times, it’s a near-even struggle.
But always, it takes but a trip outside the urban core to remember that equilibrium on an island favors preserving sense of place, when possible. That’s why the city’s recent purchase of 114 acres of oceanfront land, which includes the Kahuku Golf Course, makes sense. It’s a $12.1 million move that should keep the site for public use in perpetuity: the public course stays and access to the remote shoreline would be upgraded.
Also promising for the North Shore: An expected City Council bill that aims to end plans for a new 300-acre community at the Malaekahana section of Laie. The controversial Envision Laie project has been pushed by Hawaii Reserves Inc. — manager of Brigham Young University-Hawaii and the Polynesian Cultural Center — as a necessary build-out to accommodate BYUH expansion and affordable housing needs in the area.
But that development would require expanding the urban growth boundary of the Koolauloa Sustainable Communities Plan (KSCP) — and that, unfortunately, would spread urbanization into the agriculture-zoned Malaekahana site, which can’t be justified. Envision Laie has land within the current urban boundary it could use to develop housing — but it insists those sites aren’t optimal due to terrain, being downwind of a sewage treatment plant, and limiting to BYUH’s expansion future.
More convincing, though, are opponents who cite the need to confine growth, plus concerns such as increased traffic on overburdened Kamehameha Highway, the sole roadway from Kahaluu to Haleiwa that is seeing some serious coastal deterioration.
“Keep the country country” has been an effective slogan in Hawaii — and with good reason. It reminds planners that large-scale development is meant to be contained within designated urban boundaries, and that careful
vetting should meet any attempt to loosen or expand those boundaries.
Several years in the making, the city’s Kahuku golf land purchase culminated last week, using millions from a city fund earmarked for land conservation. Bordering the 1,100-acre James Campbell National Wildlife Refuge, the property includes nearly a mile of remote shoreline and wild coastal sand dunes. Mayor Kirk Caldwell should be held to the vision of improving access to the public.
Interestingly, the deal was aided by Lex Smith, an attorney representing landowner Continental Pacific who also was Caldwell’s campaign chairman in 2016 and 2012. For years, Smith has been in the middle of high-profile Kahuku land deals — and in 2013 raised eyebrows when he acknowledged buying three Kahuku Village plantation homes while Continental Pacific was in the midst of selling to or relocating longtime tenants of the village.
This week, Smith called the Kahuku Golf Course deal reasonable, given that Continental Pacific had wanted to subdivide the acreage to create six luxury beachfront homes. Still, it likely would have been a lengthy, contentious lift for the developer, subject to community scrutiny.
As to the cost for the city, Caldwell said this: “It was a fair price we paid. If you look at it long term, absolutely it was a bargain. There is only so much shoreline property on this island. There’s only so much with an incredibly beautiful beach like this on the island.”
The city’s Kahuku purchase is reminiscent of the state-led buy of nearby Turtle Bay acreage from Replay Resorts, for $45 million in 2015. That deal scaled down future expansion, and keeps the Kawela Bay shoreline preserved for public use in perpetuity.
Honolulu’s urban core will continue to densify, as will the “second city” of Kapolei — but careful gatekeeping against urban sprawl needs to prevail on the North Shore. It is what has helped keep the country country, and really, what has helped keep Hawaii, Hawaii.
