Kamehameha Schools has unveiled its plan for limited development at Keauhou Bay.
The trust owns 54 acres at the West Hawaii harbor, most of which has remained undeveloped despite the land being zoned for resort use.
That could change in the near future. A draft environmental assessment for Kamehameha Schools’ Keauhou Bay Management Plan was published June 23 and describes plans for new development at the bay.
The plan would reconfigure the area to better reflect its cultural significance — the bay was the birth site of King Kamehameha III, who was stillborn in 1814 but was resuscitated after the prayers of a high priest.
Marissa Harman, Hawaii Island director of asset management for Kamehameha Schools, said the plan has been developed with feedback from community stakeholders to steer usage of the bay toward something more sensitive to the cultural value of the space, while allowing for a certain degree of commercial use.
“Although zoning allows us to develop the entire parcel, we’re choosing not to,” Harman said, adding that what development does take place will be low-impact.
Harman acknowledged that the area is in high demand, and said the plan aims to balance the various uses of the bay while minimizing conflicts between users.
The first big change proposed by the plan would be to shift commercial activities from the bay itself to a site on the southern edge of Kamehameha Schools’ property. The existing buildings — occupied currently by Fair Wind Snorkel Cruises and Sea Quest Hawaii — would be repurposed into a cultural education center, and the current tenants would have the option to move into a new commercial center.
Harman emphasized that while the phrase “commercial center” carries a certain connotation, the center itself will be a couple of one-story buildings together taking up about 600 square feet, along with a parking lot, on a 2.7-acre parcel at the corner of Old Government Road and Ehukai Street. Additional buildings, including a restaurant, could be added depending on demand.
Harman said the current tenants have been notified of and are agreeable to Kamehameha Schools’ intention to relocate them.
Groundbreaking for that commercial center could begin by 2026, if the permitting process goes smoothly, and open as early as 2029.
Meanwhile, with the commercial center pulling traffic away from the bay itself, the area around the birth site would be re-landscaped into a “heritage management corridor” to better accommodate pedestrians.
Other spaces will be kept available for community recreation purposes. Harman said Kamehameha Schools is working with groups like the Keauhou Canoe Club to ensure they will be able to continue to operate at the bay.
However, the largest addition to the area will be an resort lodging complex along the southern acreage of the bluff above the bay.
Divided among 43 two-story bungalows, the complex will include 150 units of lodging across 8 acres of the property. Harman said the project will also involve a renovation of Old Kona Road to accommodate visitors using the lodging and move their traffic away from the bay proper.
Harman said the lodging component is intended to be low-impact, with buildings elevated off the ground to minimize ground disturbances, and should appeal to a more culturally conscious class of tourist. She said groundbreaking could begin between five and 10 years from now.
“This is not all happening tomorrow,” Harman said. “This is a plan that we’re permitting over a 20-year time horizon. And, of course, updated financials and market demands, that all plays into when and if this gets built.”
Nonetheless, this component of the plan is the one that has raised the most skepticism among some residents.
Sally Rankin, former resident of the bay, said she moved away from the area when it became clear to her that Kamehameha Schools was committed to adding 150 units of lodging upslope from the bay.
“If you think of a football field as an easy point of comparison, that’s 1.32 acres,” Ranking said. “This is eight acres. And that might not be a big deal in other places, but Keauhou Bay is a tiny bay.”
Rankin said that the bay already has had water quality issues in the past, and questioned how adding hundreds of tenants to the area could have anything but further negative impacts on the water quality.
Rankin also said Kamehameha Schools has not properly engaged residents in the process, and that many of her former neighbors had no idea previous community meetings about the plan were ever scheduled.
She said she and other residents have organized a loose community group called Save Keauhou Bay to oppose the project; a change.org petition associated with that group titled “Save Keauhou Bay From Becoming a Big Crowded Resort” had received more than 5,600 signatures as of Friday.
Harman emphasized that the project will embrace a regenerative tourism model, and that the area’s water infrastructure and other services can support the development.
“The beauty of us as the landowner setting the vision … is that this is the maximum number that can be built,” Harman said. “If that were to change in the future … we have to go back to public process.
“As a Native Hawaiian landowner, we’ve said … we don’t want to maximize our resort capacity, we want to optimize it,” Harman went on.
Moreover, Harman said Kamehameha Schools’ assets have been underperforming financially, and that funds generated by lodging will help support the maintenance of cultural sites like the birth site of Kamehameha III.
A public comment period for the draft environmental impact statement is ongoing until Aug. 7. The document can be found at tinyurl.com/3324ykx6 and comments can be sent to KeauhouBay@g70.design.
Email Michael Brestovansky at mbrestovansky@hawaiitribune-herald.com.