Kailua rezoning raises concern
By Eloise Aguiar
Advertiser Windward O'ahu Writer
KAILUA — A change in zoning being sought by some of the largest landowners in this beach town has merchants apprehensive over what the new designation could mean.
Business owners fear they could not keep operating under the new zoning, or might be squeezed out. Combined with a proposal for a three- to four-level parking structure, the request has both merchants and residents worried about a change in ambience for their town, said Donna Wong, a Kailua Neighborhood Board member.
"There's a lot of apprehension about what Kaneohe Ranch is doing, between the rezoning and the parking structure," Wong said.
Mitch D'Olier, chief executive officer and president of Kaneohe Ranch Co. Ltd., which manages properties for some of the landowners, said some merchants seem to be confused about the impact the rezoning would have, and he is meeting with tenants this week to explain.
Wong said she wants to slow the rezoning process to give people a chance to understand how the changes would affect them.
She said she planned to introduce a motion at the Kailua Neighborhood Board meeting tonight, 7 p.m. at the Kailua District Park multipurpose room, asking the City Council to withhold action on the zoning change until a planning process is initiated for the area.
The rezoning application has approval from the Department of Planning and Permitting and the Planning Commission; all that remains is City Council action.
Wong said the neighborhood board, which approved the zoning request in May, rescinded it last month after hearing concerns from two businesses.
The land to be rezoned, 7.65 acres on the mauka side of Hekili Street and on Hamakua Drive between Hekili and Hahani streets, is owned by Castle Family Limited Partnership, H.K.L. Castle Foundation, Alice H. Castle Trust, Kalama Land Co., Randel W. Park Trust and Samir Allwer.
Kaneohe Ranch Co. Ltd., which manages the Castle family properties, submitted the rezoning application in January 2002, and recently announced it was considering building a parking structure behind a new Long's Drug Store building now under construction.
"It's all part of a grander scheme — and I don't mean that in a negative way," Wong said. "We wanted to put this forward to give everybody an opportunity to reassess it."
Gregory Blotsky, owner of Cisco's Cantina on Hekili Street, said the rezoning application left him uncertain about his future. He said he had met with Kaneohe Ranch, but "I'm still at a loss at what's going to happen, and where I'll be two to six years from now."
On Hekili, the proposed change would be from general industrial, or I-2, zoning, to business, B-2. On the Hamakua land, it would be from general industrial, I-2, to industrial mix, IMX-1.
D'Olier of Kaneohe Ranch said a zoning change was sought to implement the Ko'olaupoko Sustainable Communities Plan, in which residents worked with the city to decide the future of their community; to reduce the number of nonconforming uses among tenants; and to provide greater flexibility in leasing.
"The zoning laws are telling us these areas are to be industrial," he said. "The sustainable communities plan says it's to be a town center with mixed uses and businesses. We're trying to make the two say the same thing to us." Then landowners can decide what to do with their property, D'Olier said.
He said zoning changes would not affect current businesses, which would be grandfathered in.
Reach Eloise Aguiar at eaguiar@honoluluadvertiser.com or 234-5266.
