Kailua seeks balance
Businesses and jobs vs. preserving a residential community
By Beverly Creamer
Lee is supposed to be at a meeting in Honolulu in half an hour, but he’s not going to make it on time.
“I don’t think we can limit the number of people coming into Kailua,” he says, “but I think you can manage how those people come into the community and where they’re going to be, to mitigate the impact on any one neighborhood.
“We’re a welcoming town, and our challenge is to make sure that the needs of our residents continue to be met and aren’t overlooked because of an increasing focus on tourism. Finding that balance is key.”
Balance is the word many people use these days in response to the tourism and development boom as visitors and Oahu residents flock to Kailua, a once sleepy suburb by the sea. The problem is: Different people have different visions of balance.
Stores, tour operators and rental businesses are flourishing and hiring more people, but many long-time residents see their laid-back lifestyle dying, with some saying tensions are close to a “boiling point.”
“The sheer volume of local people and tourists is overwhelming the infrastructure of Kailua,” Bishop says. “We love to have visitors, tourists, people from Aiea or Pearl City or Kahaluu, come to our beaches because these are very popular with residents. … But we can’t fit a busload of tourists in there. We’re being overwhelmed. The parking area, the little bridge, the narrow roads, it wasn’t designed for tour buses.”
There are other friction points:
- The long-standing dispute over illegal bed-and-breakfast facilities and short-term home rentals that cater to tourists eager to see “the real Hawaii,” and upset neighbors and unsettle communities of long-time residents.
- The construction of big-box stores, Whole Foods Market, which opened in April, and Target, scheduled to open next year.
- D.R. Horton-Schuler’s development of 153 condominiums in six four-story complexes on Kailua Road, which eliminated rundown but affordable apartments for low-income people.
- The emotional debate over state Senate Bill 2927, which would have eliminated planning, zoning, height and environmental oversight around rail and bus-transit stations around Oahu, including Kailua. The bill died in the Legislature, but it may be revived next session;
- The proliferation of rented kayaks, paddleboards and other watercraft on the beaches, in the water and on the offshore islands that serve as bird sanctuaries.
- For years, private landowners allowed hikers to cross their property to reach the trail to the World War II pillboxes above Lanikai, but the owners now chafe as the number of climbers has grown exponentially, seriously increasing erosion.
“There’s no one who will tell you Kailua isn’t prettier, with the new storefronts, the shady median and the upgraded shops like Whole Foods,” says one resident. “But some wonder: ‘At what price?’ ”
Mitch D’Olier says one person is largely responsible for bringing all those extra tourists to Kailua. “I am absolutely convinced it’s the Obama effect,” says D’Olier, president and CEO of Kaneohe Ranch, which has recently redeveloped 15 of the 40 acres it owns in the heart of Kailua.
“The tour bus people say, ‘We’re no longer selling a Haleiwa tour, we’re selling a Kailua tour. It’s closer (to Waikiki), and the second thing is Obama-san,’” D’Olier says.
“This is where the president comes when he comes home. They want to eat shave ice where he eats shave ice, and they want to walk on the beach where they’ve seen him walking with his daughters. He’s an iconic figure who has been very good for Kailua at exactly the time we needed something. We were heading for recession and I was worried we were going to lose merchants.
“But,” he continues, “we need to manage the traffic better and we need to manage the recreational places better. And we need to enforce whatever rules are there. When people can’t get out of Lanikai, when traffic doesn’t work, no, that’s not what we see for Kailua.”
Bus companies wanted to drop off tourists at the district park, he says, but he told them that would be a “nightmare” and create a community backlash. Instead, Kaneohe Ranch provided space on Hekili Street for tour buses and opened up the 135 stalls on the second floor of the parking garage beside Longs Drugs, for extra cars drawn by the opening of Whole Foods.
Many smaller businesses that cater to both tourists and locals are thriving: Boots & Kimo’s Homestyle Kitchen has a constant lineup for breakfast and lunch; Pablo Gonzalez gets an overflow crowd daily at Lanikai Juice; and James Kodama’s Island Snow may be the biggest single beneficiary of the Obama effect. The president and the first family have bought Kodama’s shave ice during every Christmas vacation for the past four years, and that translates into national and international media coverage for Island Snow.
“The Obama thing for Kailua has definitely made a difference for all businesses in Kailua,” says Kodama, who owns the Island Snow shop, but has turned operations over to his son, Brockton.
When he was growing up in Kailua, Kodama says, “Stores really couldn’t survive here.” He welcomes the changes to what he remembers as a dull and sluggish town where he had trouble finding even part-time work as a teenager.
“It’s been a hidden jewel, but it’s no longer hidden,” he says. “When the Japanese people come in, they’re appreciating exactly what you and I appreciate.”
But Chuck Prentiss says the balance has been lost. Prentiss is president of the Kailua Neighborhood Board, which supports a more tranquil windward lifestyle and wants kayak rentals banned from Kailua beaches.
“Kailua and Kalama beach parks are public recreational properties, not commercial shopping centers,” he told the City Council in a hearing on Bill 11, CD1, which would prohibit commercial activities at those beach parks. “In fact, they are zoned P-2 Preservation. Furthermore they are located in an area that you have designated as a residential community on the Oahu General Plan and the Koolaupoko Sustainable Communities Plan. … The General Plan designates other parts of the island as resort destinations where regulated commercial beach activities are permitted. … Let’s not make a mockery out of our strategic planning process.”
Prentiss said passage of the bill would not force anyone out of business. “Anyone can have a kayak rental business that is conducted from a commercial property in Kailua, which rents to locals or visitors, who can take the kayak to the beach. But for them to use scarce beach space for constant delivery and pickup of hundreds of kayaks every day, conduct lessons for kite boards, paddle boards, surfboards, etc., is totally incompatible and inappropriate outside of designated resort-destination areas.”
A vote on the bill was delayed when the city’s attorney advised the City Council that it was overstepping its powers by regulating commercial activities at the parks. Meanwhile, city Parks and Recreation director Gary Cabato says he is drafting park rules that may include a limited number of permits for rentals.
That’s what Bob Twogood hopes for. Twogood, who has spent three decades renting kayaks, says a complete ban would put at least three companies in Kailua out of business. He suggests a “reasonable permitting” system that allows the four store-based rental companies now operating to deliver kayaks next to Kaelepulu Stream, next to the bridge and across from Buzz’s.
“That keeps our delivery vehicles out of the beach parks,” he says, “and that gives the new kayakers a nice, safe place to learn to control the boat.” Then, he says, they can paddle to the mouth of the stream, drag the kayak across the sand and launch in the ocean.
Mainlanders, Japanese and other foreigners are not the only visitors to Kailua. Many residents from other parts of Oahu are driving over the Pali or along H-3 to try the restaurants, browse in the shops or hold a family picnic at the beach. But, for many Kailua storeowners, it’s the tourists who keep the lights on.
At Elvin’s Bakery, Richard Wong has watched his sister’s business grow during its six years in operation. “Kailua is a nice town,” Wong says. He especially enjoys the growing number of Japanese tourists, who are particularly fond of the bakery’s blueberry scones.
“Kailua is really becoming a shopping destination,” agrees Kerrie Inouye, manager of the Fighting Eel boutique, which opened in December. “It’s amazing, the rate of growth and the number of people who are shopping. … I’m in absolute heaven here. We have a very loyal clientele, plus the Japanese magazines have a straight Kailua section. And the Japanese tourists want omiyage, so there is a lot of shopping.”
Fighting Eel, a locally owned women’s clothing company, moved into a building fronted by Whole Foods as part of Kaneohe Ranch’s pedestrian-friendly redevelopment of Kailua. The new shops are built with attractive storefronts next to the street, and parking is in the rear.
Kaneohe Ranch also plans to extend the pedestrian-friendly district by selling to the state a 6-acre-hillside parcel parallel to Hamakua Drive. The area, which would be called the Hamakua Nature Walk, would be zoned conservation in perpetuity, include pedestrian walkways on each side of Hamakua Marsh and feature a walkway to the hilltop.
When the Target store opens next year, he says, Kaneohe Ranch and Target will do more traffic studies. D’Olier envisions a traffic signal at the corner of Hekili and Hahani streets, at Target’s main entrance, coordinated with nearby stoplights to create a smooth traffic flow in and out. He’d also like a traffic solution next to Kalapawai Market that eases left turns for people leaving the beach park and Lanikai area, and thereby reduces backups.
“It’s in nobody’s interests for traffic to come to a grinding halt,” he says. “If it comes to a grinding halt, it’s bad for all our merchants.”
Some long-time residents say the boost to Kailua’s economy is worth the extra bodies, while acknowledging that locals have to make accommodations, such as getting to the beach early and knowing when to leave.
“It doesn’t really bother us,” says landscaper Brandon Roper.
“Living in Kailua, we know what a beautiful place we live in,” says his friend, fellow landscaper Chris Canario. “We cannot be selfish. We gotta share.”
Still, there are limits and they both say they don’t want their hometown to ever look like Waikiki. “One time I counted 150 kayaks on the Mokes,” Roper recalls with exasperation.
