Supportive testimony by a wide swath of individuals from resort operators to labor unions and tourism promoters to front-line workers who sleep in their cars because of a lack of housing wasn’t enough to win approval Tuesday from a County Council panel on a plan to convert half of a Waikoloa Beach Resort golf course to timeshare units.
Instead, as a three-plus hour meeting dragged into the evening hours, the council Planning Committee postponed Bills 112 and 115 until its Feb. 22 meeting.
Kumu Hou at Waikoloa would feature 1,164 timeshare units and 25 single-family home lots on 183 acres currently part of the 18-hole Kings’ Course in Waikoloa Beach Resort. Developers anticipate build-out would occur in 2043 and 470 full-time jobs would be created, mostly at the resort.
Developers sweetened the pot with a promise of affordable housing and a $50 million endowment over the course of the development to the Waikoloa Foundation, a philanthropic sister organization to the Waikoloa Land Co., for tourism management projects and study ways to buffer fishponds and beaches from rising sea levels.
Hamakua Councilwoman Heather Kimball pressed developers for an accounting of how many units would remain under the entitlements granted the property earlier. She also questioned the developers’ plan to move some buildings around on the property and what it would do to open space.
“Are we shifting them around in a way that’s justifiable?” Kimball asked.
John Plunkett, representing Waikoloa Land Co., said there will be a lowered density of 519 units, but he couldn’t promise that those units would never be built over the course of the development, other than the fact there is really no land to put them on.
“I can’t say we won’t come in … (but) this is really our last significant project that we’ll be doing here,” Plunkett said.
“They’ll be spread out on the mauka and makai side instead of all squished on the makai side,” added planning consultant Sidney Fuke. “There has been not too significant a loss in terms of open space.”
North Kona Councilman Holeka Inaba wanted to see some justification for the need for additional timeshare units.
Plunkett responded that the company had done an absorption analysis that showed a market for the timeshares.
Kumu Hou will ensure the creation of no less than 142 affordable workforce rental housing units as part of the project. The Waikoloa Beach Resort will be the first resort community in the state to prioritize the development of workforce housing within the resort’s footprint.
Qualified workers would be in the low-moderate income bracket — from 30% to 80% of the median income. For those earning 30% Hawaii County AMI, a single person earning $17,520 per year up to a family of four earning $66,640, rents will start at $469 for a one-bedroom unit. Those in the 80% AMI category will pay $1,733 per month for a three-bedroom unit. Workers must be residents to qualify for the housing.
