Posted on: Friday, February 22, 2002
Hale'iwa confronts future
By Will Hoover
Advertiser North Shore Writer
|
| Kaipo Franchey, 19, in the back of the pickup, makes his second trip of the day past the drive-through window at the Hale'iwa McDonald's. Susan Smith, in the foreground, owns the franchise, which is fighting to keep the drive-through.
Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser |
Even before McDonald's of Hale'iwa opened its doors in 1989 it was controversial, having replaced the venerated art deco style Hale'iwa Theatre built in 1931.
Since then, the controversy has spilled over into a squabble over the drive-through window McDonald's opened in 1997. Some local residents and businesses contend that McDonald's franchise owner Susan Smith has used powerful connections to usurp Hale'iwa's special district ordinance passed and amended by the Honolulu City Council in the 1980s.
That law, designed to perpetuate Hale'iwa's rural, 1920s character, expressly outlaws "drive-through facilities."
Smith and her supporters say the drive-through window is legal and that it has meant the survival of a business that is popular, has provided jobs and has given the local economy a needed boost.
The issue could be resolved once and for all by the Ho-nolulu City Council as early as next month. Meanwhile, folks on both sides mull the possibilities.
According to Ron Valenciana, publisher of the North Shore News, the quandary is:
Does Smith's drive-through window represent a convenient, positive and progressive influence on the Hale'iwa community? Or does it pose a threat to Hale'iwa's very identity by gambling with the town's biggest drawing card — its quaint, old-time appeal?
Smith, who has owned the town's McDonald's since 1990, said business was difficult enough before the Hale'iwa bypass diverted traffic away from town in 1995.
After that, it dropped off so much that in 1996 she applied for a variance to the special district law to allow the window. At the time Smith said she had a lot of community support — including that of the Hale'iwa Main Street business association.
McDonald's got the variance in 1997, and Hale'iwa got its first-ever fast food drive-through window.
Since that time the drive-through has been repeatedly challenged. Life of the Land, a land use community advocacy group, insisted that the variance was invalid and sued.
A state Circuit Court ruled the variance invalid. Smith appealed that ruling to the state Supreme Court, which has yet to hear the case.
"Their case to the Supreme Court is based on economic hardship," said Kat Brady, with Life of The Land. "The Supreme Court is on record ruling that economic hardship is no justification for a variance. So they're afraid they're going to lose in court."
Thus, said Brady, a "preemptive strike" was orchestrated by Smith's representative, consultant Donald Clegg, who happens to be the former head of what is now known as the City Department of Planning and Permitting.
Honolulu City Councilwoman Rene Mansho introduced a resolution that would allow drive-through windows in Hale'iwa with restrictions that would allow no more than a total of two windows, one at each end of town.
Clegg, who doesn't dispute that he knows the Honolulu zoning laws as well as anyone, said the subsequent Mansho bill has moved to the City Zoning Committee and that the City Council could make a final decision in March or early April.
If the City Council changes the law to allow drive-through windows in Hale'iwa, Clegg added, "The Supreme Court case is moot, because you no longer need a variance to have a drive-through. At that point there is no need to appeal because there is no longer anything in contention.
"If the legislative body wants to change the policy, it has the right to do it. That's what it does. That's democracy."
Smith, who has posted a bond to keep her drive-through open until the matter is resolved, claims she is fighting for the survival of her business.
"This is not going to open the flood gates," she said. "In the simplest terms, the drive-through has made this restaurant economically viable. More than 65 percent of our business comes from the drive-through."
Antya Miller, president of the Hale'iwa Main Street business association, said her organization merely supported Smith's right to seek a variance under the law. But the group strongly favors maintaining the community's special district ordinance, which is compatible with the Hale'iwa Town Plan introduced in 1991.
Among other goals, that plan calls for protecting "the rural character of the town," and keeping "the country country."
Meryl Andersen, who spearheaded the special district law in the mid-1980s, said passage of the City Council bill would "open Pandora's box" and invite an invasion of national fast-food outlets to the small town.
"We don't want Hale'iwa to look like Wahiawa, which is all drive-throughs," said Andersen, who has lived in the area for half a century. "The way I feel is, if we lose this one, it's over. There's no way they can open the door to one or two drive-through windows and keep others out.
"The ordinance was created to keep a quaint, 1920s-era, old Hawai'i type town here. And there were no drive-through windows here in the 1920s."
Some residents who eat at McDonald's wonder what all the fuss is about.
"If the restaurant goes, we won't have a place to hang out," said Richard Holmberg, a Santa Claus look-alike who belongs to a contingent of around 10 retired men and women who get together for breakfast and conversation at McDonald's every weekday morning.
"They say people don't like the drive-through. Well, I've lived here all my life and no one has ever called and asked what I think."
Francis Forsythe, a retired military accountant, has lived his whole life a short distance from where McDonald's is located. .
"I've always respected Mrs. Andersen," he said as he leaned back in his seat at McDonald's. "But, for me, McDonald's looks nice, and it's convenient. It's our new social center in some ways — like the Hale'iwa Theatre was before McDonald's replaced it. Times change."
But for Larry McElheny, who sits on the North Shore Neighborhood Board, what's happening with drive-throughs in Hale'iwa "just stinks to high heaven.
"It goes way beyond the issue of drive-throughs," said McElheny. "What we're talking about is the integrity of the special district, the integrity of the process that established the special district, and the questionable integrity of the process that's being used to assault the special district."
