News

Another Plan for 'O'oma

Village Touted as first planned mixed use shoreline community in kona

by Bobby Command
West Hawaii Today
Tuesday, May 20, 2008

 

A subdivision of as many as 1,200 units would be built on the property between Kohanaiki and Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii.

Known as Ooma Beachside Village, the community is being touted by its developer as the first planned mixed use shoreline community in Kona, as well as the first being built in accordance with the Kona Community Development Plan. It is the former Clifto's Kona Coast parcel.

"There's been nothing like this," said Dennis Moresco, chief executive officer of developer Midland Pacific Homes. "This nonresort beach front community aligns with the guiding principles of the draft community development plan."

The draft environmental impact statement for the project is due to be formally released when a notice is published in the May 23 edition of the Environmental Notice.

Moresco said the community is also being built using the principles of "New Urbanism," a 1980s movement which calls for communities where residents "live, work and play."

Plans by Moresco call for 950 to 1,200 homes with up to 560, single-family residences, 200 multifamily residences, 400 units in the mauka mixed-use village and 40 in the makai mixed-use village.

Moresco said the term mixed-use refers to an area where residential, office and commercial space is located within a village-type environment.

"The community is getting precisely what it is asking for in the community development plan," said Moresco. "It's designed to reduce impact. It's environmentally conscious, and there are lots of housing opportunities for all economic levels."

One of the issues that caused the defeat of Clifto's by the Hawaii County Council was traffic. Clifto's had proposed on the mauka portion of the property a 400-room hotel and 240 luxury homes, as well as a shopping center.

However, public sentiment also turned against developer Cliff Morris because he was trying to market the property at the same time he was going through the land use permitting process.

Moresco said Ooma Beachside Village will address its share of impacts by creating a community where fewer people will likely commute to other places to work through the mixed use village concept.

The project will also build its share of a frontage road along side the Queen Kaahumanu Highway that will connect with a road being built by the neighboring Shores at Kohanaiki subdivision. Moresco said the road, which would travel through the mauka village, would have key intersections at Kaiminani and the Kohanaiki Business Park.

But the frontage road, which would play a key role in the success of the community development plan, has run into resistance by the National Park at Kaloko-Honokohau, and the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii, which has expressed little desire to finance the road or allow general public access across its property to the Kona International Airport.

Moresco also said the Ooma project would be timed so it would likely not be open for occupancy until the second phase of the Queen Kaahumanu Highway widening and Ane Keohokalole Highway are completed.

However, that highway, which is being touted as a "transit corridor" between various villages, is likely to cost $35 million just to connect Henry Street with Hina-Lani Street, and the full corridor all the way to Kaiminani Drive would be at least double that cost.

Additionally, the state, which broke ground on phase one of the Queen Kaahumanu Highway widening in September 2005, originally announced that it would complete the project in Spring 2007. A number of delays have pushed the latest completion date to Summer 2008.

Moresco said he was hesitant to delay occupancy of his project until the two roadways projects are completed.

"Our timeline and theirs are supposed to be concurrent," he said. "But some of that may come in the conditions of approval."

Moresco said he would also prefer to address impacts to local schools by offering a site for a charter school on his property. Moresco said he was in discussion with the West Hawaii Explorations Academy, now located in temporary quarters at NELHA .

As for the open space along the shoreline, Moresco said there would be between 1,110 and 1,700 feet of buffer between the community and the ocean. He said the public would be able to drive or walk to Ooma's 18-acre shoreline park. Moresco said he was not sure if the community would maintain the park.

"We'll sit down with Kohanaiki and see how this works for everyone," Moresco said.