A rekindled effort is underway to build homes with golf course views on a strip of land in Hawaii Kai once intended to become a city road.
A developer recently submitted an application with the city to develop 14 single-family houses on 2.9 acres near Kalama Village Center after buying the property in December for $4 million.
The application, made on behalf of property owner Buff Raiders Property LLC, led by Henry Amado and Paul Shinkawa, follows a more dense plan by another developer for 26 homes that the city Department of Planning and Permitting approved in 2010.
The previous plan, which was mostly two-story buildings with four units each, drew opposition from area residents including neighbors with homes along the edge of the property who complained about construction, traffic and obstructed views toward the Hawaii Kai Golf Course.
The Planning and Permitting Department approved the prior plan under rules for cluster housing that it regards as “in-fill development” encouraged by the city’s East Honolulu Sustainable Communities Plan.
The new proposed project, dubbed Kalama Hokupa‘a, is also seeking a cluster housing permit. The developer, in its application dated April 2, said up to 26 homes can be placed on the property under the city’s land use ordinance.
Community members will have an opportunity to weigh in on the plan at a Hawaii Kai Neighborhood Board meeting Tuesday during which a representative of the developer plans to make a presentation.
In the permit application, the developer said its homes with landscaping will provide a “refreshing change” to the look of the area and will provide needed housing.
“Housing opportunities in East Oahu are very limited, compared to West Oahu,” the permit application said. “Therefore, this project provides for the purchase of single-family homes that are compatible with the surrounding residential development. Views through the site will be improved with manicured landscaping and new housing construction compared to the overgrown scrub brush that is currently established on the site.”
Kalama Hokupa‘a is designed to comprise 2,300-square-foot two-story homes on land collectively owned in a condominium property regime. An access road would come off the end of Mokuhano Street and run between the existing 10 or so homes adjacent to the site. A 4,900-square-foot private park is also part of the plan.
The site was once slated to become an extension of Hawaii Kai Drive running to the Queen’s Beach area, where a hotel, golf course and condominiums were envisioned by Henry J. Kaiser, the industrialist who developed much of Hawaii Kai.
Community opposition to the resort plan erupted in the 1980s and led to the preservation of Queen’s Beach and the Ka Iwi Coast, which made the road extension unnecessary.
Zoning for the former road extension parcel is mostly residential. A smaller piece is zoned for preservation, though the developer said in its application that it will leave that area untouched.
A company led by veteran Hawaii developer Bob Gerell bought the property in 2008 for $56,113 in connection with acquiring property on a nearby ridge and valley on which he pursued development of 180 vacation cabins with local attorney Bill McCorriston.
The Gerell and McCorriston company, Plate Lunch Properties LLC, leased the residential parcel to a company formed by James McWhorter of Orem, Utah. McWhorter’s company, Pololei Partners LLC, pursued the 26-home project that was later abandoned.
Plate Lunch Properties sold the property to Buff Raiders, whose members include Amado, Shinkawa and the firm Union Mill Investments LLC, which includes McCorriston’s son, Michael.
