A California real estate investment company that recently bought a 172-acre, undeveloped golf course site in the Royal Kunia subdivision is interested in building homes on the property.

The plan is preliminary and would require zoning change approval by the City Council. But already, some area residents have spoken out against more homes replacing what was to have been a golf course in the mostly complete master-planned community.

Central Oahu Associates, an affiliate of Beverly Hills-based 3D Investments, recently bought the property for $3 million from Japan firm Koei Hawaii Inc., according to property records.

Principals with 3D did not respond to requests to share their plans for the site. But local representatives of the company have briefed Councilman Nestor Garcia.

Garcia, who represents the Kunia community, said the investment firm's plans shared with him were very preliminary and did not include a rough estimate of how many homes are envisioned.

"They have homes in mind," he said. "There's no question about that."

Garcia said it's too early to take a position on the conceptual idea, but he has concerns about the impact homes would have on schools and roads in the area.

"I've heard it more than once: More homes mean more cars and impacts on schools," he said.

Suzy Mitchem, a Royal Kunia resident who three years ago bought a new home next to the proposed golf course property, said she is appalled that what she was led to believe would become a golf course or park might become more homes.

"This is ridiculous," she said. "There are enough houses. They don't need to be building more. I think that the citizens of Royal Kunia will be up in arms and fight it every single way they possibly can. I know I will."

Other residents have expressed similar sentiments since they saw the "For Sale" sign go up on the unmanicured land several months ago and suspected that a buyer might try to build more houses because of rocketing home prices on O'ahu.

Building homes on the Kunia site would require a change from general preservation zoning that allows a golf course but not much else.

But building golf courses at Royal Kunia has proved troublesome. Local developer Herbert Horita master-planned Royal Kunia, a community with roughly 2,000 homes, a commercial center and two proposed golf courses that began taking shape from Central O'ahu sugarcane fields in the late 1980s.

One of the golf courses was completed in 1994 by a Japanese company, but wasn't allowed to open because the owner could not pay $13 million of a $25 million impact fee Horita negotiated with the city to obtain zoning for the golf course development on former agriculture land.

In 2001, a lender who took over the idle Royal Kunia Golf Course negotiated to resolve the $13 million debt by paying the city $2.5 million, plus $1 per round for the life of the course, which finally opened two years ago.

The recently sold undeveloped golf course site is surrounded by roughly 300 homes, many of which were sold with the expectation they would one day overlook fairways and well-manicured greens.

The proposed improvements, while not guaranteed by Horita and partner Castle & Cooke Homes, led many home buyers to anticipate that their property values would one day rise with a golf course next door.

Koei had owned the property since buying it in 1989 for $13.5 million from Horita and assuming a $25 million community impact fee obligation to the city.

However, the collapse of the Japanese investment bubble prevented Koei from making an initial installment payment on the impact fee, and the company couldn't start construction in 1992. Earlier this year, Koei listed the property for sale for $8.5 million.

A new impact fee agreement would likely be required as part of any zoning change consideration, Garcia said.

An impact fee, according to Garcia, would likely try to address alleviating overcrowded roads and schools that receive added use by adding more homes in the area.

Central O'ahu has major traffic congestion, but Kunia has particularly suffered from a shortage of elementary school space.

Horita had agreed to transfer land to the state for a planned Royal Kunia Elementary School once slated to open in the mid-1990s. But delays and then Horita financial troubles that led to liens placed on some Royal Kunia assets blocked the land transfer, which is still in limbo. As a result, attendance at nearby Kaleiopu'u Elementary School in Village Park has overflowed.