Every Sunday, "Back in the Day" looks at an article that ran on this date in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. The items are verbatim, so don’t blame us today for yesteryear’s bad grammar.

City planners say some resort growth — between 10,000 and 15,000 hotel rooms — probably will be desirable over the next 20 years.

The question is: Where?

A few months back, the city Department of General Planning prepared a summary assessing the resort potential of locations on Oahu capable of accommodating 3,000 rooms or more.

Because the City Council’s Waikiki Special Design District imposes growth controls for future development of Waikiki, the planning department asked the neighborhood boards for their input with regard to resort development outside of Waikiki.

After attending Oahu-wide committee meetings, neighborhood hearings and, in some cases, voting on the merits of proposed resort areas, 14 neighborhood boards submitted written recommendations to the planning department.

Their reports do not indicate agreement on the desirability of any of the five areas being studied by the city: Kahuku on the North Shore, West Beach in the Ewa area, Queen’s Beach near Makapuu, Makaha on the Waianae Coast and Ala Moana-Kakaako, adjacent to downtown.

However, a number of boards using a variety of approaches reached the same conclusions: The most promising area for future resort development on Oahu is Waikiki.

Sounding the call for future development in Waikiki was the Waikiki Neighborhood Board No. 9, which told the city that Waikiki should receive priority in capital improvement funds because it will remain the primary tourist destination in Hawaii.

"It is essential that the quality of Waikiki be continually improved to insure against deterioration of the environment for visitors and residents alike," the board’s report said.

The board called for an end to "the strip mining of Waikiki" by which it meant the destruction of small buildings and open green spaces for the construction of high-rise hotels and condominiums.

Waikiki’s board came out in support of development of resort facilities in Kakaako to absorb expansion of tourist needs. It opposed any further development at Kahuku, West Beach, Queen’s Beach or Makaha.