It’s Called ‘Country’ for a Reason

Owners of Turtle Bay Resort on the North Shore of O‘ahu want to build 3,500 more residential units (condo, timeshare and hotel) on and around Kawela Bay based on an agreement and land use permit that are nearly 20 years old—and based on an environmental impact study that is even older. Much has changed in 20 years and the North Shore community wants an updated assessment before the development is allowed to proceed.

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Kuilima Resort Company is now attempting to subdivide more than 700 acres of land from Kawela Bay to Kahuku Point and proposed a new shoreline certification for parcels of land including Kawela Bay and Kahuku Point for which the stated purpose is “development of land.” Currently, the sprawling Turtle Bay Resort has only 500 units, so the magnitude of adding another 3,500 would expand the resort to eight times its existing size.

Turtle Bay is owned Kuilima Resort Company, an affiliate of Los Angeles-based Oaktree Capital Management LLC, which is a $30 billion private investment firm with an opportunistic philosophy of buying distressed property to turn it over when the market appreciates. In addition to Turtle Bay, Oaktree also acquired Liberty House stores in 1998 and sold them to Federated Department Stores Inc. (now operating its department stores under the Macy’s division).asd Oaktree’s policies have been controversial over the years among the 350-plus O‘ahu employees, regarding issues such as worker’s rights, job security and benefits. They have also had clashes with the local community in the past due to their history of fighting environmental and community groups over development.

On June 7, 2006, the Sierra Club- Hawai‘i Chapter and local community group, “Keep the North Shore Country” filed a lawsuit in the First Circuit Court of the State of Hawai`i against the City and County of Honolulu, Director of the Department of Planning and Permitting Henry Eng and Kuilima Resort Company to require a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for Kuilima’s Resort Expansion Project at Kawela Bay and Turtle Bay Resort.

Respected waterman and Kawela Bay resident Mark Cunningham is leading the “Defend Oahu Coalition,” which was the first organized opposition to Turtle Bay Resort’s expansion plan for Kawela Bay. The issue is quite simple for North Shore residents. Can the land, the water and sewage systems, the highways and the community handle anymore large-scale development and resultant pollution and traffic? The answer, for many in the community, is no.

Aside from donning green bumper stickers that read: “Keep the North Shore COUNTRY” and “Keep the Country COUNTRY” on every vehicle in sight, residents are calling, writing, faxing and emailing their government officials and pleading for re-assessment of the impact this development would have on the already fragile Hawaiian environment.

—Tiffany Hervey

Click here DefendOahuCoalition.org

Click here KeepTheNorthShoreCountry.org