A Honolulu City Council committee is putting off decision-making on a request to raise the height limit for a second hotel-condominium tower on Kuhio Avenue to be operated and managed by the Ritz-Carlton chain, following objections raised by the project’s neighbors.
Council Zoning Chairman Ikaika Anderson said the concerns raised by the community are valid. "It is incumbent on this committee to do what we can within reason, within what’s possible, to work with the community and to work with the applicant to see if in fact we can address the community concerns," he said.
Before the committee is Resolution 14-38, which would allow PACREP2 LLC to build the proposed 2139 Kuhio Ave. building up to 350 feet high, in excess of the 300-foot height limit for the Waikiki Special Design District.
The Los Angeles-based PACREP, which also is building the neighboring Ritz-Carlton Waikiki Beach Residences at 2121 Kuhio, envisions a 39-story tower of 350 feet in height with up to 280 units at Kuhio Avenue and Kaiolu Street.
Zoning allows for a hotel of up to 300 feet on the site, and, technically, the only issue before the Council committee is a variance for the height limit. Decision-making is scheduled for Thursday.
Scott Glass of Geurin Glass Architect told committee members that raising the height limit would allow the developer to create a sleeker design that would actually minimize the visual impact on neighboring buildings. Additionally, "a slimmer, taller building provides additional space between the two towers" and allows more open space at the ground level.
But residents from the nearby Four Paddles and Aloha Towers condominium complexes were joined by Waikiki Neighborhood Board Chairman Robert Finley in disputing that claim.
They also raised a series of other concerns including the loss of view planes and open space, potential traffic and parking impacts, unsatisfying answers on how the developer is dealing with Hawaiian cultural issues and flooding worries, and what they perceived as misrepresentations and deception on the part of PACREP, which in January 2013 received a Council OK to raise the height on the first tower to 350 feet.
Mark Mondscalco of the newly formed Central Waikiki Neighborhood Association said residents, the Department of Planning and Permitting and Council members were duped a year ago into believing there was to be only one tower, thus barring them from seeing the bigger picture. Renderings then showed that the site of the second high-rise was anticipated to have a low-rise commercial site, he said.
Casey Federman, a PACREP principal, said he took exception to the charge that the developer had misled the public. The developer was focused on the first tower and that while "we looked around" at other vacant properties, it wasn’t until March 2013, after the developer determined the first tower was successful, that an option-to-buy agreement was reached for the second tower.
