LIHU‘E — The Kaua‘i County Planning Commission Tuesday approved requests for permits from leaders of Starwood Vacation Ownership to develop a 358-unit resort hotel project on a plateau at Princeville overlooking ‘Anini Beach Park. Commission members, who gathered at a
LIHU‘E — The Kaua‘i County Planning Commission Tuesday approved requests for permits from leaders of Starwood Vacation Ownership to develop a 358-unit resort hotel project on a plateau at Princeville overlooking ‘Anini Beach Park.
Commission members, who gathered at a meeting at the Lihu‘e Civic Center, approved the permits after SVO leaders adequately addressed their concerns and those of the public about building heights, preserving view planes and easing anticipated traffic flow from the project.
SVO leaders secured a project development use permit and a Class IV zoning permit to develop a project that originally proposed mostly condominium units, some hotel rooms, swimming pools, a restaurant, large-scale parking and lush landscaping.
Some residents, including owners at the Puamana Condominiums, which is located adjacent to the resort site off Wyllie Road at Princeville, wanted the developer to stick to a 25-foot building height limit mandated in the North Shore Development Plan.
Folks were concerned that any buildings taller than that would be visually intrusive to some Puamana Condominium occupants and residents and beach-goers at ‘Anini Beach, which is located makai of the project.
Planning commissioners, however, allowed SVO to move away from the recommended height limit, as long as the developer built two-story structures that were less than 29 feet tall, and three-story structures that were less than 39 feet tall.
Honolulu architect Mike Muromoto of Design Partners Inc. pledged to work with officials in the Kaua‘i County Planning Department and county Planning Director Ian Costa, an architect himself, in designing buildings that would be in line with the approved height cap.
From his point of view, Commissioner Lawrence Chaffin Jr. said he believed adherence to the 25-foot building height was the better way to go.
He said exceeding it would be a bad idea, although past county planning commissions have approved height deviations for other projects at Princeville.
“What is the point of rules and regulations if we always give variances?” he said. “Is this just an exercise?”
Kaua‘i attorney Michael Belles, who represents SVO, said after the meeting that he and SVO representatives have met with residents and government officials more than 50 times over the past two and a half years.
And no one raised the issue of building heights until the developer officially presented their proposal to county leaders this year, Belle said.
People mostly focused their attention on the visual impact the project might have on ‘Anini Beach, he said.
Contrary to what some critics have said, Belles and Bryan Mamaclay, a senior planner with the Kaua‘i Planning Department, both noted that the developer was not officially seeking a variance.
“This is not a variance,” Mamaclay said, noting that the granting of the project development use permit is a “broad-brush way” of looking at developing a master plan for a project, and amounts to a variation of a code that could be considered, “with the idea of having a better product.”
The gradual sloping of the resort site toward ‘Anini Beach also would allow taller buildings to be constructed and help prevent them from becoming visually intrusive, Belles and Muromoto said.
Landscaping also could be planted in a way to help hide the buildings, according to Kaua‘i consultant Greg Kamm.
Commissioner Mike Cockett said it appeared to him that the developer was being asked to jump through too many hoops.
Requiring the developer to adhere to a 25-foot height recommendation would be too restrictive, Cockett said.
The commission should exercise more flexibility in determining the height restrictions for buildings at the SVO project, Cockett said.
After all, buildings at resorts in Wailua and elsewhere on Kaua‘i exceed 50 feet, and views in those areas are preserved, he indicated.
Buildings that are taller than 25 feet also can work at the SVO project because the resort will be located in an established resort and visitor-destination area, Cockett said.
Both Commissioners Sandi Kato-Klutke and Steve Weinstein also raised concerns about the visual impact of buildings that were too tall, and that the layout of buildings would block views and take away the feeling of spaciousness.
The developer has made “major concessions” in the planning of the project, including reducing the height of a clubhouse from 37 feet to less than 25, Belles said. The clubhouse, to be generally located in the middle of the resort structures, is a centerpiece of the project, and a larger structure would have helped with the sale of the SVO development, Belles said.
The developer also made other major concessions, by placing the buildings in such a way so that they would be perpendicular to the coastal property, establishing a 100-foot setback along the cliff-line by the project, and planning a “partially-subgrade garage” structure so that it would not be visually intrusive to Puamana condominium residents, Belles said.
