A proposal that would allow the opening of the Royal Kunia Golf Course, completed in 1994, continues to work its way through the Honolulu City Council.
The course has never opened for play because the developer didn’t pay all fees it had promised to pay the city. Yesterday, the council’s Zoning Committee discussed some of the conditions that would be required in a city-approved settlement.
Royal O‘ahu Resort Inc. had promised to pay the city $25 million as a "community impact fee" in exchange for permission to build the course. The developer paid $10 million to the city and $2 million to the Waipahu Community Foundation. The city has not allowed the course to open without payment of the additional $13 million.
Council Chairman Jon Yosh-imura, who is working for a settlement, favors a plan in which JAC Hawaii, a major lender for current landowner Liongain Hawaii, would pay $2.5 million as well as $1 per round of golf to the city "in perpetuity."
The council will await a recommendation from the city Department of Planning and Permitting before taking action that would allow the course to open.
