A developer’s request to raise the height limit for a new $275 million hotel in Waikiki gets its first airing before the City Council Zoning and Planning Committee today.

Los Angeles-based PACREP LLC wants to put up a 37-story hotel-condominium building at 2121 Kuhio Ave. At 350 feet, the tower is planned to be 50 feet higher than the Waikiki Special Design District limit.

The Council is tasked with considering requests for height exceptions up to 350 feet in Waikiki — if the new building does not intrude upon view corridors from the Punchbowl lookouts toward Diamond Head or the horizon or from Kalakaua Avenue at Fort DeRussy toward the slopes and ridgeline of the Koolau Mountains.

Jiro Sumada, acting director of the Department of Planning and Permitting, earlier this month sent a letter to Council members stating that the developer’s study shows only about 8 percent of the building, "a relatively small portion," will be visible from a Punchbowl lookout toward Diamond Head and the ocean.

Keith Kurahashi, of the planning firm Kusao & Kurahashi, said the height increase will actually reduce the footprint of the building by allowing for a thinner building.

Area residents and members of the Waikiki Neighborhood Board have concerns.

While the neighborhood board has not taken a position on the project, it notes that 2121 Kuhio does not meet with the Waikiki Special Design District guidelines.

Board member Jeff Mertz pointed out that the guidelines state specifically that new high-rises generally "should be oriented in a mauka-makai direction to minimize obstruction of mauka views."

The guideline was designed to preserve public views of the mountains, Mertz said.

The project is on 3.5 acres bounded by Kalakaua Avenue, Kalaimoku Street and Kuhio Avenue, although the Kalakaua portion already houses a luxury retail complex that is expected to remain.

The project would sit on the site of what was formerly the Old Waikiki Market that included Canlis Restaurant and Hula’s Bar and Grill.

The project is designed as a "condo-hotel," meaning individual hotel units are sold to investors, most of whom are expected to place their units back into the pool of hotel rooms for most of a given year.

Kurahashi said the developer recently revised the number of units downward to 351 from 459 to reflect market demands for larger units.

Neither the total floor area nor the density of the project was changed as a result, he said.

Besides the height variance from the Council, the project still needs a use permit from the Department of Planning and Permitting before it can proceed.