Don’t weaken vision for Kakaako

OliverMcMillan, developers of the $380 million luxury condominium at 850 Kapiolani Blvd. named Symphony Honolulu, have persuaded state authorities and some community groups that their high-rise tower should be cleared for construction with the company’s preferred alignment: the broad face of the building along Kapiolani.

The administrative rules guiding the Hawaii Community Development Authority, the quasi-independent agency guiding Kakaako redevelopment, bend enough that OliverMcMillan is likely to get the variance it seeks. Making the counterargument becomes difficult.

The rule in question, one of a set that is supposed to help reshape the mauka side of the Kakaako district under HCDA purview, is meant to avoid the creation of a Manhattan-style wall of high rises. It asserts that a widest face of a building should be aligned more closely to the nearest mauka-makai view corridor than to the streets running in the Ewa-Diamond Head direction.

What’s more worrisome than this individual project — which is really aligned like most tall buildings along Kapiolani — is whether HCDA’s rules will hold firm enough to result in the somewhat airier arrangement of buildings, which the agency seeks and the community should prefer.

HCDA’s board of directors, due to make its decision today, has on hand a staff report that recommends approval of the variance. The reason, according to the staff report, is that the request meets all the criteria for a variance set out in the administrative rules for the Kakaako mauka area adopted last fall.

For example, according to the report, the project otherwise meets the mauka rules and the variance sought would not affect other properties or “alter the existing or planned character of the neighborhood.”

“The tower and podium design is compatible with other developments such as 909 Kapiolani, Pacifica Honolulu and Moana Pacific along Kapiolani Boulevard and the immediate vicinity of the project site,” HCDA staff concluded in the report.

Among the other “findings of fact” cited is the alluvial (underground) stream channel under the project site that developers have asserted will present a challenge in maintaining the alignment preferred in the rules. However, in a meeting last week with Star-Advertiser staff, spokesmen for the project said the subterranean layer will be less significant an impediment than they originally feared.

Further, the San Diego-based developer added that its preferred tower alignmentwould avoid higher energy costs. Otherwise, they said, units would be subject to more afternoon sun and require more air conditioning, and the arrangement would be less than optimal for planned use of photovoltaic power cells. Also, executives said, the rule for setback from two streets effectively reduced the area that can accommodate the building.

What remains to be seen is whether the rule governing alignment of the buildings is strong enough that HCDA can achieve, in the end, the community design that it seeks.

Anthony Ching, HCDA executive director, said the particular environment of this project, as well as the fact that its mauka location lessens the visual impact viewed from the waterfront, helped to bolster the case for the variance. He said the case would be harder to make in many other locations within the design district.

Still, this case should prompt the board to consider whether its variance rules need strengthening, before the redevelopment of Kakaako, a critical piece of the Honolulu waterfront, proceeds much further.