Allow limited-service hotels

It’s hard to imagine how Kapolei will ever achieve its hoped-for status as a true "second city" if there are no provisions for visitors — people with actual business to conduct in that area.

And it’s now starting to attract visitors, according to several testifying in favor of a sensible bill asking the City Council to allow "limited service" hotels.

These facilities would be among the permitted businesses in lower-density, mixed-use neighborhoods of West and Central Oahu.

Bill 12-75 was kicked back on Wednesday to the Council Planning and Zoning Committee to add a requirement that a limited-service hotel with more than 180 rooms get Council approval as well as a conditional use permit from the Department of Planning and Permitting.

That would be a reasonable request, giving the public an added opportunity to weigh in on a larger project. The bill should be amended and returned for a final vote without delay.

The overall proposal has drawn strong support from West Oahu leaders who should have their finger on the community pulse, and their arguments make sense.

For example, the chancellor of the University of Hawaii at West Oahu, Gene Awakuni, told the Council that academics and others applying for positions at the new campus have few lodging options outside Waikiki and Ko Olina resorts, and high-end hotel rooms are not what they need.

Anyone who has approached one of the region’s athletic complexes knows that youth sports competitions can bring in whole cheering sections of parents from out of state, most of whom would much rather stay out of commuter traffic and close to the playing fields themselves.

A small, no-frills hotel could also draw "contractors, family dependents and other short-term visitors to military bases," along with residents transitioning in or out of Oahu, added Theresia McMurdo, president of the Kapolei Chamber of Commerce.

Most mainland cities offer a range of short-term accommodations, but the category of traveler motels has never fully developed here, probably because the standard hotel better served the Waikiki area and other resort destinations of the state.

But as the Oahu communities have built out, the purposes of travel to the state have diversified.

People still want the beaches and the luxurious hotel environments, of course, but Honolulu’s profile as a business destination is starting to flower — which should be a desirable goal.

The principal opposition to the bill has come from Unite Here! Local 5, a union representing hotel and restaurant workers, which has proposed requiring an onerous list of criteria that permit applicants would need to meet.

For instance, the union wants city officials to weigh the operator’s plans for "quality, living-wage, stable and full-time perma- nent jobs."

Objections from various opponents also include the concern that the limited-service approach would be adopted by other hotels and reduce the size of the workforce hired in the industry, and that the lodges would be able to afford higher rents and ace out other enterprises seeking a spot in mixed-use zones.

If anything, however, the limited-service hotel would add employment opportunities for West and Central Oahu residents, many of whom would like the chance to commute to work closer to home.

And, as some have pointed out in hearings, the allowance for motel-style lodgings in the airport district did not crowd out other businesses in that area, so there’s little to suggest it would in West Oahu.

Clearly, the community has demonstrated that the lodgings would fill a niche that’s otherwise unserved.

With the provision for adequate Council oversight, this sounds like a good next step in the development of Oahu’s second city.

CORRECTION: Gene Awakuni is the chancellor of the University of Hawaii West Oahu until he retires this summer. A previous version of this editorial and the editorial in the print edition called him the former chancellor.