Keep The Country Flipping

The neighbor who lives on the Mainland has a big old new truck in his driveway. I've never met him even though he has owned the house for about 9 months now.

He is a quick learner. He has a "Keep The Country Country" bumper sticker on his brand new hardly been used truck. His house is on the market for $175,000 more than he bought it for 9 months ago.

Just another anti-development, die hard, North Shore preservationist. So true, so dedicated, so committed. They all make for good company.

Toegee No Post, What's Up?

Toegee-Jon was travelling to the Mainland last week and now I am volunteering at the Turtle Bay Championship along with 500 other people. Come on out the tournament and see if you can pick me out. Hint I'm in a yellow shirt. Aloha, still gonna do the Kahuku and other east side of the North Shore towns.

Smokers Of Oahu Unite, Come Smoke at Sunset Beach

Front page news about the smoking law in the Advertiser this Tuesday AM. It made me think about illegal smoking and illegal businesses. Since most of the businesses in Sunset Beach are illegal anyway, why not have all of Oahu's smokers and tourists go to the shrimp truck and the restaurant at the Tiki and smoke their brains out. Why not shop for a bikini, rent a bike and puff away over by Shark's Cove.

I mean come on, what can happen at an illegal business that allows an illegal activity? How about an ad that says "Smoke Free Store - The First Butt Is On Us!"

Turtle Bay is @ 3.0 and going to 4.0

I have discussed Turtle Bay in many other posts. The Oaktree Era is covered in these two :

Oaktree Turns Around Turtle Bay

Opposition Starts to Turtle Bay

1.0 - Del Webb built Kuilima/Turtle Bay on, with the exception of Kawela Bay, junk land. It was land that Kahuku told him he could build on. Poor Del Webb thought he would be able to build a casino. The land he was "given" was an old airfield and swamp on the Kahuku side and sugar cane fields on the Kawela side.

Del Webb sold it to Prudential, Prudential sold it to the Japanese Company - Asahi Junken.

2.0 Asahi wanted to develop it, market changed, money ran out, place became a dump with "Beirut" as a nickname.

3.0 Oaktree buys it. Fixes it. Wants to develop. North Shore and Oahu Environmental activists with Local 5 Union support drum up an opposition campaign against the development which leads us to today.

4.0 What will happen to Turtle Bay?

If you read and believe the wacko, lie strewn, propaganda put out by groups like Defend Oahu Coalition, Keep The North Shoe County, and the Paumalu Press you would think that Turtle Bay WILL build a total of 3,500 more hotel, condos or homes.

The big correction they all know but are unwilling to make because they want to scare you is this - Turtle Bay CAN build up to 3,500 more hotel, condos or homes.

Let's say you live up in Pupukea and you have 2 acres - approximately 88,000 square feet of land and you are on a residential lot. You CAN build a house that is about 25% of the lot size. So if you go by the wacko logic, you WILL build a house that is 22,000 square feet. Crazy yes?

Since the Unilateral Agreement was completed 20 years ago and Oaktree started working on Turtle Bay 10 years ago, the market for hotels and condos has changed a lot. Density - think Wailea, Waikoloa, Kaanapali has gone out of fashion. New hotel projects that are doing well are less dense - Hualalai, Kona Village and are getting more money per room.

The most desirable condo projects are not in large complexes but feel more like single family homes. The per square foot price is much higher for lower density, higher luxury, more private accommodations. The Ocean Villas at Turtle Bay are almost sold out and they went from about $1,000,000 to $3,500,000.

Say what you want about Turtle Bay, but they have done a very smart job of fixing the place up. Everything they have built has won awards and is world class. Lei Lei's, Ola, The Palmer Course, the Beach Cottages and Ocean Villas. Maybe not in your opinion, but look it up. To think they are all of a sudden going to get stupid and build a bunch of cheap junk is absurd.

Turtle Bay will most likely build less, spending less money on construction and selling it for more. Why? Not because of you serial protesting robots, but because that is the market. It is easier to sell 500 condos at $2,000,000 than a 1,000 at $1,000,000. It is easier to fill 800 hotel rooms at $800 a night than it is to fill 2,500 hotel rooms at $350 a night. It is cheaper to build less. It is cheaper to maintain less, it is cheaper to replace the linens and repaint fewer units.

Turtle Bay will not build these things themselves. The 6 lots for development will have different partners or buyers. Until they get a buyer or partner to design or build something, they nor anyone else on the planet has a clue as to what exactly will be built there. For the Serial Protesters to demand to see the plans and demand to know what Kuilima is up to, just shows again how ignorant or deceiving these people are. To make it simple. Let's say there are 6 - 2 acre lots for sale right next to each other in Pupukea. Each one will be bought by a different owner and that owner will build their own house. Tell me what the houses will look like and how big will they be before anyone buys a lot. If you don't tell me, you are a liar or holding back information. This is the same situation Turtle Bay is in.

What do you think those evil genius capitalists at Kuilima Resort Company are going to do?

My guess is less density, more profit.

So what is the North Shore to do?

My suggestion - see what we can get out of it.

Start talking to Turtle Bay. Stop the idiotic lawsuits. If the government wants to change Turtle Bay's zoning and make it a park it would be simple. Pay Turtle Bay the difference of what they could have made. The rumor I heard was that Turtle Bay's land was appraised at $1,000,000,000 - that's right a billion. Let's say they can sell the hotel and golf courses and the land under the condos for $200,000,000 and they give the government a Kamaaina Discount of 25% off for the rest. The land sale of $800,000,000 will only cost us taxpayers a cool $600,000,000. Makes the rail system seem cheap and shows you why the city is being careful.

Here is a list of some of the things that the community might be able to get in return for some sanity.

• - North Shore Discount Card good on restaurants, golf, concerts, drinks, hotel rooms for our visiting relatives. Let's say Turtle Bay offered a rate of $150 a night for our visiting relatives and gave them one night free for every two nights they stay. Then they'd be out of our house and we could visit them and maybe crash the pool without feeling too guilty.
• - Restaurants that offer low to medium family prices. Perhaps they could be persuaded to open some bars, clubs, shops that would not be tourist prices so we could go there. Come to think of it, that would be nice over in Haleiwa as well.
• - Bike Path. Turtle Bay says they want to hook up a bike path to Kahuku, why not to Sunset, other than the obvioius reason that we all want the Sunset people to stay in Sunset.
• - Sewage Treatment - Turtle Bay's sewage plant is built for up to 4,500 units. If they don't build that much how about letting some of Kahuku or Sunset hook up so our poop doesn't go where it goes now into cesspools, leech fields and who knows where else.
• - YMCA - Blake and Jack's deal for Paumalu Pupukea is going to make the dream of a YMCA go down the drain. Maybe Turtle Bay can set aside some land for a YMCA there.
• - Meeting Rooms, Concert Halls, Graduation Spaces - Have Turtle Bay make available some of the space they build for community events, fund raising concerts, graduations, piano recitals, charity functions, hospital balls, etc..
• - Road to Wahaiwa - Have Turtle Bay use their clout to get the road done. It is our only hope to lessen traffic on Kam Hwy along the beach.

Turtle Bay 4.0,5.0 and beyond are going to happen. Let's make it work for us.

North Shore 1.0, 2.0, 3.0 Sunset and Pupukea

Sunset Beach 1.1 - If Velzyland had not been torn down and the property subdivided by Andy A. Sunset would probably be in a version of less than 1.0. That is mainly because this community is DEVOLVING. The quality of the public sector facilities - parks, beaches, recreation, commercial activity, is actually getting worse in this stretch from Waimea to Crawford. Just think of the Ag Center where every 6 months to a year another building in that complex either falls down or is condemned to the bulldozer not to be replaced.

There are commercial zones in Sunset. The location next to Foodland, the Shark's Cove Mall, is commercial zoned. Not much else is. I wonder what would happen today if there was no Foodland and someone said they wanted to build a store there. My guess, people go ballistic, "No Food at Shark's Cove" "Keep Food Out of the Country", etc.

If you need any proof that this area is starved for a place to mingle, eat, enjoy each other's company, be entertained, just look at the lines at Starbucks and Ted's Bakery. Even the old Sunset Pizza had a steady stream of clientele who were looking for a local place to hang. Now there is a cider block wall just waiting to get grafittied on.

I have shocking news for people in Sunset that will no doubt cause spasms of denial - COMMERCE IS NOT INHERENTLY EVIL.

Think about it. There are two legal businesses that serve sit down food in this stretch - Ted's and Starbucks. 2 1/2 if you count the truck. Wouldn't it be great if there were good places for local people to go to get some good tasty treats, see their friends and neighbors, socialize and walk, ride their bikes or have a short drive home. This is a GOOD thing. Commerce makes for good neighborhoods. It is OK to be able to buy gas, get a tire changed (oops, can't do that at Chevron anymore), see your chiropractor or doctor, have an office. Good communities have good towns with commerce.

I can not see Sunset/Pupukea getting to version 2.0. The uphill struggle to build anything at Sharks Cove will require the kind of thick skin and determination that who in their right mind would want to put up with. With the demise of the Obayashi property, there will be no other large developer to hang a project like a YMCA on.

Let's face it THERE WILL BE NO MAJOR PUBIC IMPROVEMENTS IN SUNSET FOR THE NEXT 20 YEARS AT LEAST.

You see in our capitalist system, private developers can be forced to build things for the community. But if you have no private developers, no one can afford to build things for us. Think how well the city is doing in getting the new rec center and skate park done, yes the answer is not very well indeed. The infill occurring in Sunset, vacant lots being built, existing lots subdivided or condoed will all continue. This type of mini development requires no commitments by the developers to the community to improve anything. You can hear them saying "I'm only doing a few houses at a time", "my lot is zoned for 2 houses", "yeah, I'm going to buy and use the condo law to get a rental unit on to it". These are the same people parading around with their anti development bumper stickers.

In the area of Sunset there are more illegal restaurants and businesses (Pupukea Road, Maui Loa's Tiki shops, Mackey's Shrimp Truck) than there are legal entities.

The taped up playground at Sunset Beach Elementary is virtually closed. The tennis courts and basketball courts there and next to the Firehouse should be condemned for all the cracks and loose gravel that are there. I have never ever seen a volley ball net up in either of those places.

The bike path is devolving to the point where you have ask yourself "is this stretch safer than the road?"

In the mean time the drone of STOP, SAVE, NO, DEFEND, KEEP "goes on and on and on and on it goes". The people in this area must get in their cars and drive somewhere else adding to the North Shore traffic because there is nothing there for them to do, to buy, to eat or to enjoy.

Man does not live on sand alone.

Sunset/Pupukea needs an upgrade, but they condemned their only computer. That is the definition of a mess.

I honestly can not see anything changing over there which will make the Luddites very happy. Good for them, they get what they deserve.