On Dec. 19, the Hawaii Supreme Court will hear oral arguments concerning the legitimacy of a 25-year-old environmental impact statement linked to a proposed expansion of Turtle Bay Resort.
Kuilima Resort Co., owner of Turtle Bay Resort, is seeking final subdivision approval for 3,500 new hotel rooms on Oahu’s largely rural North Shore. Currently, Turtle Bay has 500 hotel rooms.
In 2006, environmental groups -- including Keep the North Shore Country and the Sierra Club -- asked Honolulu’s Department of Permitting and Planning to consider a supplemental environmental impact statement.
They argued that initial approval of the Turtle Bay Resort expansion was given 23 years earlier, and that subsequent changes to the North Shore region have been dramatic.
The city later ruled that a new impact statement was not required by law, and two of the state’s lower courts have since upheld that decision.
Traffic on the North Shore’s lone, two-lane highway has increased substantially over the past two decades, and the environmental groups insist that the proposed resort expansion would lead to more gridlock.
Other concerns include the impact on breeding locations for the endangered monk seal and the disruption of ancient Hawaiian burial grounds.
