News

Ooma Beachside Village EIS gives 20-year build-out plan

by Erin Miller
West Hawaii Today
Tuesday, January 27, 2009

 

Construction on the proposed Ooma Beachside Village won’t start until at least 2011, though likely later, based on the final environmental impact statement.

The 1,500-page document estimates that during the first half of construction phase, about 380 jobs would be created, and after the development is operational, it would sustain the equivalent of 480 full-time employees. In all, the project costs are estimated to be between $114 and $116 million.

But the development timetable, included in the EIS, scheduled submitting a number of construction permits in 2011, based on receiving other permitting approvals before then. The first properties could be available for sale or lease in 2012, according to the EIS, but major infrastructure wouldn’t be completed until 2018, with full build-out done in 2029. The plan estimates 950 to 1,200 homes will be built.

The development is located makai of Queen Kaahumanu Highway and south of the Natural Energy Lab of Hawaii. The plan includes setbacks from the shoreline of about 1,000 feet, and an 18-acre beach park, as well as mixed shopping areas and residential areas. That design, a traditional neighborhood design, would limit the number of times residents would need to leave the development and decrease overall traffic impacts, said Dennis Moresco, chief executive officer of developer Midland Pacific. Limiting traffic would mitigate impacts, he claimed in an interview last year.

The final EIS acknowledged that the development may need to pay a school impact fee, based on a law passed in 2007.

The other mitigation the development will include is construction of a portion of a planned frontage road that would run parallel to Queen Kaahumanu Highway, eventually providing access from Kailua-Kona to the Kona International Airport. That proposal has previously run into resistance by the National Park at Kaloko-Honokohau and the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii.

Ooma must receive a Special Management Area Use Permit, a Conservation District Use Permit and a State Land Use District Boundary Amendment.