Celebration marks signing of measure to preserve land

Gov. Neil Abercrombie traded his koa-paneled office for a Kawela Bay shoreline filled with ironwood trees Monday as the site to sign a "landmark" bill protecting 665 acres at Turtle Bay Resort from development.

"I’m so pleased to be able to do this today as the kia aina, as the governor," he said. "It’s more than historic."

Abercrombie signed House Bill 2434 overlooking the isolated bay on Oahu’s North Shore while flanked by a group of government leaders and area community members who were instrumental in arranging an agreement for the owner of Turtle Bay Resort to sell the state a preservation easement on the land for $48.5 million.

The signing event creating Act 81 was a somewhat elaborate affair with live musicians, a hula by resort employee and former Mrs. America Lara Leimana Fonoimoana, elegant pupu and a ceremonial planting of a hala tree all to commemorate a years-long effort that almost came undone in the waning moments of the legislative session earlier this month.

Abercrombie asked months ago for $40 million in revenue bonds to be included in the state budget in anticipation of the easement deal. Yet even after an easement sale agreement was made last month, lawmakers approved a budget without the money for Turtle Bay, and instead scrambled to revamp a bill relating to the state transient accommodations tax to pay for the easement.

Under Act 81, the Hawaii Tourism Authority will refinance debt on the Hawai’i Convention Center and use some of the savings about $3 million a year in hotel room tax revenue to pay debt service on the $40 million easement revenue bonds.

Also chipping in for the easement is the city with $5 million and The Trust for Public Land with $3.5 million.

The governor acknowledged some concern voiced over the financing scheme that lawmakers slapped together in the last days of this year’s session, but said it was time to act to preserve the land through what he called a landmark proposal.

"It was a bit kapakahi," Abercrombie said of how the financing was arranged. Just before he put his pen to the bill, he chuckled and explained, "I’m smiling because this bill is a bill relating to the transient accommodations tax."

At the same time, the governor stressed that the revenue bond plan is solid. "I can assure you that the financing is in order," he said.

However, much still has to be done to execute the easement purchase, including underwriting the bonds, appraising the easement value and refinancing the convention center debt. Also, The Trust for Public Land needs to raise its share of the purchase price, while a written easement agreement still needs to be fleshed out with details covering public access requirements, creation of two new public parks and other legally binding elements.

State Attorney General David Louie said the amount of work ahead makes it hard to estimate a timetable for completing the easement deal even though Act 81 takes effect July 1.

Some benefits will be immediate, such as potentially more public use of the area because of the publicity of the easement deal, which includes already public access to roughly 12 miles of trails between Kawela Bay and Kahuku Point.

Ray Soon, chief of staff for Mayor Kirk Caldwell, said he spent a decade growing up as a child in Kaaawa but never felt that Kawela Bay was open.

"Now this will be accessible to all of us," he said.

Drew Stotesbury, the resort’s chief executive, pointed out that a prior owner of the resort, Japanese-based Asahi Jyuken, had driven more than a hundred concrete pilings into the ground fronting Kawela Bay and the other side of Kawela Point to build a hotel 25 years ago before an economic downturn stopped construction.

"With the action today, (development at Kawela Bay) is stopped forever," Stotesbury said. "That’s a huge achievement."

Stotesbury said the resort’s willingness to sell a preservation easement achieves a balance between the resort’s goal to earn a return on its land and a large community movement to protect undeveloped areas.

Under the easement, 650 homes, including 225 envisioned fronting Kawela Bay, that were approved for development on the resort’s 852 acres cannot be built.

Some 665 acres, including 70 acres fronting Kawela Bay and about 600 acres largely occupied by Turtle Bay’s two golf courses, will be shielded from development, though the resort will continue golf and other resort activities on the land that it will continue to own and maintain.

The resort is not prevented from carrying out the rest of its expansion plan that includes two hotels with a combined 625 rooms as well as 100 homes on about 150 acres fronting the ocean on opposing sides of the existing 443-room Turtle Bay hotel. Stotesbury said construction is projected to start on the first hotel in about two years.