North Shore residents have seen this happen before, and not too long ago: Decisions are being made on a key public issue of great community concern with very little discussion conducted in the open.

First it was the ownership of Waimea Valley that was largely debated behind closed doors. While that controversy finally ended well, with the preservation of a cultural resource, this is not how planning for the future should be conducted.

So it's frustrating to see that the city recently issued a tentative approval on the subdivision application for the Turtle Bay resort expansion with so little opportunity for public comment.

City officials underscore that the approval is not final and that planners were legally bound to take some action by Oct. 26. Meanwhile, lawyers have urged the City Council to table all public discussions of the project because of a pending lawsuit challenging the validity of an environmental impact statement issued more than 20 years ago.

All of this may be legally sound, strictly speaking, but residents are left with the galling realization that they have no audience before their elected city officials.

Mayor Mufi Hannemann reports that he has met with developers Kuilima Resort Co. and is "encouraged" by its openness to suggestions. That's fine, but the rest of us would like to see a little of that openness, too.

If some measure of expansion at Turtle Bay proceeds, as it undoubtedly will, it needs to be based on a process with transparency. Kuilima and the city may not be able to sit down with the litigants in a pending lawsuit, but the virtual shutdown of the entire conversation seems pointless, especially as the permitting process moves along without constraint.