Turtle Bay Resort had 500 hotel units and 368 condominiums long before the 1986 Unilateral Agreement and remains that way today. The Unilateral Agreement designated the ability to build up to 3,500 additional resort units. More recently this total was split between 2,500 new hotel units and 1,000 new residential units – with five development parcels for each. This sum and its components were not well received in the local community. Under new ownership and new direction, and following a full year of community consultation, a new resort master plan has been prepared. It is presented here.
Viewing Turtle Bay Resort in the context of its three ahupua‘a, the focus for future hospitality development will be in Ahupua‘a ‘O Hanaka‘oe – the existing resort core. This will be complemented by minimal residential development in Ahupua‘a O ‘Ōpana-Kawela and Kahuku.
Ahupua‘a ‘O Hanaka‘oe is where the existing hotel operation is. It will be complemented by two new hotel parcels, one on either side of the existing hotel, offering a total of 625 new hotel units. On the western hotel parcel, an intimate gathering place will be included that provides an outdoor living room for homeowners, resort guests and community members to mingle and enjoy a small array of shops, restaurants and other commercial venues. On either side (east and west) of the hospitality precinct that we are creating will be public parks that define the limits of the busier Hanaka‘oe area and provide a transition towards the quieter residential areas that extend beyond. Mauka of the western park will be a farmer’s market providing farmers from our agricultural lands and elsewhere in the local community with a convenient resort outlet for their produce.
Continuing west, the Ahupua‘a ‘O Ōpana-Kawela includes beautiful and beloved Kawela Bay. This jewel of Turtle Bay Resort’s lands is also highly valued by the community. Recognizing the competing interests, we have planned for a very low-scale, low-density collection of 225 new resort homes on two parcels. These homes will be set well back from the shoreline – in fact a minimum of 300 feet at Kawela Bay – with a maximum building height of fifty feet for the homes oriented to Kawela Bay and sixty feet for those oriented to Turtle Bay. We will also work to enhance the Kawela Bay marine environment by rerouting Kawela Stream back to its original outflow into Turtle Bay and establishing a Marine Life Conservation Area in Kawela Bay. A new park on the Kawela Bay beach will enhance community enjoyment of this area. We are working to enhance Kawela Bay, improve public access to it and minimize our development impact.
On the eastern portion of the land, in the Ahupua‘a O Kahuku, there are four residential development parcels, three on the Palmer Golf Course and one facing the ocean, where we have planned 365 new resort homes. Again, the density, scale and building heights are very sensitive to the land and environment. In addition, although we are obligated to provide only 59 homes affordable to the local community, we have provided two development parcels for 160 new community homes. Housing is a profound problem in the local area and we want to contribute to the solution. Plans for this Ahupua‘a also include the 100-acre Punaho‘olapa Wildlife Preserve, an important wetland area for water birds, along with a large passive park at Kahuku Point – the northern most tip of O‘ahu.
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