Proposed sale of unused Kailua site irks residents

For more than 50 years, a piece of residential-zoned land in Kailua with ocean views has been vacant and reserved for development of an elementary school. But now the city is interested in selling the vacant parcel, to the dismay of many neighbors.

The site occupying 10 acres of a hillside near Kalaheo High School is estimated to be worth more than $10 million — money that would be added to city coffers for public use.

Yet many area residents oppose the effort to sell the property, which is big enough for roughly 50 homes under zoning regulations.

"I think it would be a huge mistake for the city to sell the land over to developers," said Matt Darnell, who lives nearby in the Kalaheo Hillside neighborhood and is vice chairman of the Kailua Neighborhood Board.

The city Department of Budget and Fiscal Services is seeking to sell the property as surplus through a sealed bid process.

The city bought the property from Kaneohe Ranch in 1961 to provide land for an envisioned Kalaheo Elementary School. At the time, the city was in charge of building schools.

In the years since new-school development was transferred to the state Department of Education, plans for Kalaheo Elementary were abandoned. DOE spokeswoman Donalyn Dela Cruz said four existing elementary schools in the area — Aikahi, Kailua, Kainalu and Mokapu — are sufficient.

With no need for a school on the site, the state Board of Education approved the city’s desire to dispose of the parcel.

"The sale of the Kalaheo property is in the interest of the city because it will reduce the city’s liability and maintenance costs, put the vacant parcel to productive use and generate revenues," Nelson Koyanagi Jr., budget and fiscal services director, wrote in a letter to the City Council in April.

Koyanagi’s letter says the parcel, which borders 18 homes and the Kailua Assembly of God church along with roughly 200 acres of preservation land above, may have a rockfall potential but also has two road connections and good views of Kailua and the ocean.

A minimum bid of $10.45 million is suggested, as that is what city property tax officials estimate the land is worth.

City Council Chairman Ernie Martin introduced a resolution in June, Resolution 15-170, to approve offering the property for sale through a sealed bid invitation. The Council held an initial hearing in June that resulted in the measure being deferred because of a lack of community feedback.

At a Kailua Neighborhood Board committee meeting in August, about a dozen attendees expressed opposition to selling the property to developers. And at a community meeting last month attended by about 100 people, more concerns was raised.

Darnell said homes in the neighborhood already have problems with flooding and slippage, which residents fear would become worse with more development.

"The best course of action would be for the city to keep the land and rezone it as preservation and/or turn it over to the community in the form of a park or community garden," he said.

Dan Preciado, Kailua Assembly of God’s senior pastor, said traffic already is a mess around the time Kalaheo High starts and ends. "I wouldn’t want to see development of additional houses," he said.

Preciado said the city land, ideally in his view, would be a nice site on which the church could expand to create more parking and another building perhaps for classrooms or a new sanctuary. "We would love to have that property," he said. "But a church our size doesn’t have $10.4 million."

City Councilman Ikaika Anderson, the area’s representative who helped host the August community meeting with budget and fiscal services officials, said he heard an overwhelming message largely from Kalaheo Hillside residents that the city shouldn’t try to maximize its return by selling to the highest bidder.

"The community opposes development and any sale," he said.

Anderson added, however, that alternate ideas presented at the meeting other than keeping the status quo, creating park space or down-zoning the land to preservation use included using the land for affordable housing or assisted senior living.

Based on the meeting results, Anderson said he doesn’t favor advancing the resolution for further discussion, though he intends to solicit more feedback from the community via mail. "I’m not going to take any action that the community doesn’t want," he said.