Delicate balance for Turtle Bay

Given all the present concern about traffic among many residents of the North Shore, it’s hard to conceive how much development the City Council approved at Turtle Bay Resort, through a unilateral agreement with the landowners at the time, back in 1985. The fact that the entitlements bound the city, despite changes in conditions over the years that the project languished, fueled a community controversy that still persists.

But now, a court-ordered supplement to the project’s environmental impact statement has been drafted, bringing all the studies up to date and largely clearing the last major legal hurdle blocking the start of the expansion. The project, comprising two hotels with 625 units and 750 residences on the 880-acre North Shore property, represents about a 60 percent reduction in density originally proposed. As presented this week, the development plan offers considerable accommodation of public access to this prized stretch of coastline.

It’s in that context that Replay Resorts Inc., the company now seeking to bring the project to fruition, deserves credit for trying to balance its economic interests with another primary consideration: the acceptance of its host community.

That said, the community — including the North Shore neighborhoods, environmental groups and government agencies with oversight of the project — now should advocate for moderating the pace of growth in the larger Koolauloa region — growth that will result from this project and others in the pipeline. The Turtle Bay developers have left the door open to discussions about options for increased preservation, especially around the prized asset of Kawela Bay.

The public should take them up on the chance to explore these options, even with the expectation that it would be costly. Besides outright acquisition, easements limiting the use of select parcels could be negotiated, and partners who could pursue this should be sought.

Comments on the Draft Supplemental EIS will be taken through Jan. 18. The SEIS is accessible online (turtlebaySEIS.com); use the Community link for instructions on submitting comments. Taking time to do so, despite the crush of the holidays, should be seen as a worthwhile investment by those concerned about the area.

Traffic remains the principal concern for most residents. They love the rural character of their home but chafe when the narrow two-lane highway serving it becomes clogged, as it already does during peak hours on the weekdays and especially during marquee competitions at its world-famous surf spots.

Replay Resorts executives acknowledge that their project will contribute to that traffic but assert that most of it will move at off-peak times. But by its own projections, full buildout of the project would have its greatest impact on congestion on Saturday middays, with a 28 percent increase in traffic load just outside Haleiwa. That’s a considerable bump, and state transportation authorities must ensure that Replay is on the hook to pay its fair share for any road improvements to mitigate the problem.

Two other major projects — Envision Laie, in the Laie-Malaekahana area to the south, and Kamehameha Schools, redeveloping the Kawailoa-Haleiwa areas up north — have to be considered. Turtle Bay developers may not have to factor them into their own plans, but all the other stakeholders do. Change is cumulative, and it’s permanent.

In 2008, former Gov. Linda Lingle proposed the purchase of Turtle Bay as a means of preserving it. Finding the resources to do so as the nation fell into the Great Recession proved a practical impossibility, but that proposal was a powerful expression of how much Hawaii fears losing this particular jewel of the North Shore.

The developers say they want a resort that is welcoming to, and welcome by, the community, recognizing that the kamaaina touch would add to its appeal to visitors, too.

In that recognition, there’s hope that Turtle Bay Resort can find the equilibrium between the promise of job and housing opportunities and the preservation of what makes this site such an attraction in the first place.