A map with the 1996 news clipping is crude by today’s dazzling graphics standards for publications, a simple rectangle showing Oahu with a marker pointing to a magnified area on the island’s southwestern shore.
“Proposed Ewa Marina,” the description reads, zeroing in on a petroglyph-like outline of a promise.
Like other enticements development companies layer in with their master plans, artist renditions and vision statements, the marina that was extolled and peddled as the centerpiece of a housing project has been abandoned.
Instead of a snug harbor that was to ease ocean access on the Leeward side, that was to create 1,500 jobs, that was envisioned to supplement tourism with charter tours and other boating activities such as an America’s Cup-style yachting competition, what will be installed is a lagoon, an artificial lake with brackish water.
Fresh artist depictions of the lagoon show small coves of sandy beaches, generous walkways, a floating bridge connecting jetties where boats would be anchored, a string of buildings for retailers and restaurants and, of course, the official monuments to Hawaii’s economy, resort hotels and time-share complexes.
To be fair, developers and investors roll the dice when master-planning. No one can predict if costs to build will remain within profit margins or whether demand for houses will be sustained or grow, although in Hawaii, demand from within and without is pretty much a sure thing when prices are reasonable.
The cost of the now-lost marina had been a blessing in that it allowed the developer to argue that it needed hotels and resort condos for the expenses to pencil out, that selling houses alone would not cover the outlay. Now, 20 years past, the company says that the time it will take to complete the marina, possible legal opposition that could delay construction of the lucrative resort segment and a market decline for boat slips point to ditching the marina.
Furthermore, the developer says, more people would use a lagoon than a marina. There will even be parking — 150 to 200 public spaces — so that outsiders or residents in the outlying reaches of the community could join in the recreation.
As for jobs — the key justification for almost any project proposal — the lagoon-side housing developer hasn’t yet calculated the numbers.
Some who put up money for a house in Ewa are having buyers’ remorse, but the developer says government approvals for land reclassification and zoning were not contingent on the marina, although it appears a Land Use Commission ruling requires compliance.
The loss of a marina isn’t the end of the world, but the situation illustrates how government cannot rely on promises or good intentions. Should the city sell off what officials considered a problem piece of Haleiwa land, even one once thought so desirable that they went through condemnation proceedings to acquire it, it should get more than a nod of assurance from a buyer that parking and space for canoes will be retained.
Should the state approve development of hundreds of acres of good Central Oahu farmland, it should get guarantees that schools, hospitals and adequate traffic mitigation will be completed early in decades-long build-outs. Government agencies should require public benefits will come, that bait-and-switches will no longer be acceptable vision statements for development.
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Cynthia Oi can be reached at coi@staradvertiser.com.
