Although it won’t happen all at once, Hawaii visitors will cover most of the cost to preserve more than 600 acres and two prized stretches of stunning coastline on Oahu’s North shore at Turtle Bay Resort.
Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie signed House Bill 2434 late last month, ratifying a $48.5 million conservation easement arrangement between the state of Hawaii, the city and county of Honolulu and the ownership of Turtle Bay Resort that will safeguard 665.8 acres from development in perpetuity.
While details have yet to be finalized, the signed legislation clears the way for the state to purchase development rights for two large parcels on either side of the existing Turtle Bay hotel, one fronted by picturesque Kawela Bay and the other by scenic Kahuku point.
Of the total purchase price, $5 million will come from the city and county of Honolulu, and $3.5 million will be provided by the Trust for Public Land. The other $40 million will come from the state financed by revenue bonds, which the Hawaii Tourism Authority (HTA) will pay off in $3 million annual increments funded entirely by money collected from Hawaii’s transient accommodations tax — the destination’s hotel room tax often referred to as simply the TAT. 
“The beauty of it is that visitors are paying to keep open space in Hawaii,” said Mike McCartney, the HTA president and CEO. “I hope to see this work out well so we can do more like this in the future, because it’s good for residents, it’s good for the community and the visitor industry.”
A source of major tension in the Oahu community for years, expansion plans at Turtle Bay Resort at one time called for an additional 3,500 hotel and residential units on the property’s 840 total acres. While the conservation easement agreement between the state and the resort’s ownership won’t halt development entirely, it will limit growth to just two additional hotel buildings on either side of the existing resort footprint, adding an additional 625 full-service hotel rooms.
Not covered in the conservation agreement are another 100 resort residential units planned for the nearly 200 acres owned by Turtle Bay. According to resort officials, construction on the new hotels and resort homes could begin as early as 2016.
“We’re accomplishing what the North Shore community has overwhelmingly told us they want — preserving treasured lands forever while providing new job opportunities that families so desperately need,” Drew Stotesbury, the CEO of Turtle Bay Resort, said in a statement.
While many of the community groups that have passionately protested the Turtle Bay expansion are calling the recent conservation agreement an excellent first step, several of them still have lawsuits filed against the resort owners aimed at halting any future construction there.
Meanwhile, McCartney said the deal “found the right balance” and felt visitor-generated hotel tax revenue was an appropriate means to fund the preservation effort at Turtle Bay.
“The TAT can be used to preserve important pieces of land and to protect Hawaii’s scenic beauty,” he explained. “That’s one of the pillars of Hawaii. People come here for those things, so we have to invest in that and protect it. You can’t just assume it’s going to be there forever. We’ve got to take care of it.”