Zoning changes and Visitor Designated Area (VDA) changes are in the line-up for Kukui‘Ula Development’s hearing before the Kauai County Planning Commission which is scheduled for October 10. During a recent presentation to PBRA members and guests, Vice President of
Zoning changes and Visitor Designated Area (VDA) changes are in the line-up for Kukui‘Ula Development’s hearing before the Kauai County Planning Commission which is scheduled for October 10.
During a recent presentation to PBRA members and guests, Vice President of Kukui‘Ula Development Co. (Hawai‘i), LLC, Mike Roberts, outlined new plans to lower density for the project significantly. Cut down to under 1600 units, new zoning requests call for R-4 zoning for the majority of the project, with R-8 zoning surrounding the proposed hotel.
An 18-hole golf course will be aligned partially along the coastline west of Spouting Horn as well as wind its way throughout much of the project. There are also plans for a recreational complex, sports fields and golf clubhouse along with development of commercial space near the Poipu Road and Lawa‘i Road intersection.
Roberts outlined details as well as for bike paths and routes throughout the entire project, along with walking trails.
The plans for roadways include: Building both an interior project road connecting Poipu Road to the resort and golf course complexes and building a westerly by-pass route, up to Koloa Road. Mike also talked about working with the County on acquiring access to connect the westerly By-pass to Maluhia Road as well as building a roundabout at the intersection of Poipu Road, Lawa‘i Road and the new project road.
Asking for VDA status to cover the entire project will allow all units to be put into transient occupancy rental, according to Roberts, however, the only site that can be developed for time-share would be the parcels surrounding the proposed hotel site that are classified R-8. With a little over 60 acres in that classification, it would allow for 500 units developed as time-share, condominium or villa.
Current zoning allows for 300 units with 200 “lock-offs” as separate units along with a 200-room hotel. However, the developers are proposing to scale back to a 60-room deluxe hotel.
The resort development location has also moved east of the currently zoned site to take better advantage of the view corridors extending down through Kukui‘ula Harbor. There are no plans for expansion of the Harbor.
VISITOR STATS –
Big surge in U.S. East
In August, visitors to Kaua‘i who came from points east of the Rockies jumped +9 percent over the previous year, with those staying only on Kaua‘i rising by +16.4 percent. Visitors from U.S. West were also up for Kaua‘i by +1.6 percent, with the Kaua‘i-only segment ahead by +5.8 percent. Overall, Kaua‘i’s visitor arrivals in August were down -2.2 percent at a total of 94,297, with the domestic market up by +2.8 percent and international arrivals off by -30.3 percent. Year-to- date, Kaua‘i’s total arrivals are slightly down by -1.4 percent, but the length-of-stay has increased by almost 5 percent to 7.13 days for domestic visitors and by +41.4 percent for international visitors.
By comparison, as of the first 8 months, O‘ahu’s total arrivals are down by – 6.8 percent. Mau‘i’s are up by +5.7 percent and the Big Island is off by – 1. 1 percent.
Scheduled air seats directly into Lihu‘e were up 31.2 percent in August, totaling 30,096 passenger seats. O‘ahu’s capacity dropped by -1.1 percent to 605,830; Mau‘i had an increase of 12.1 percent to 141,816 seats and Kona saw an increase of + 16.7 percent to 51,160 seats.
