Turtle Bay Resort

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Categories: Honolulu, City and County | Planning in Hawaii | City and County of Honolulu planning | Unions in Hawaii

Turtle Bay Resort is a resort complex located on the rural North Shore of Oahu near the town of Kahuku. It is an hours drive from the urban tourist center of Waikiki. Its advertisements say the resort sits on 880 acres of land and touts 5 miles of bays and beaches.

Turtle Bay, when it first opened its doors in May of 1972, was known as Del Webb’s Kuilima Resort & Country Club. It is now run by Oaktree Capital Management, which has poured $60 million into renovations.

1 Future development plans
2 Union dispute
3 External Links

Future development plans

Oaktree Capital, which acquired Turtle Bay in 1999, announced in March 2006, that it will move forward on a development plan that was approved twenty years ago. Turtle Bay Resort's 20 year old master plan, which included five lodging structures, was expected to be completed by 1996, but was never completed. [1]

A Star-Bulletin article dated April 2, 2006 reports on the present push for development at Turtle Bay and the resulting backlash:

Unite Here Local 5, the hotel workers union, has filed suit to block development because the special management permit and the environmental impact study are now 20 years old.

The union also is pursuing legislation that would keep the city department from approving Turtle Bay's proposed expansion without requiring updated environmental, cultural, social and infrastructure studies, said Eric Gill, financial secretary-treasurer for Local 5.

Union employees at Turtle Bay, who have been involved in a consumer boycott of the hotel since 2003, have experienced Oaktree's aggressive tactics for squashing workers' rights, such as job security and benefits and their disregard for the community, Gill said.

Last week, Kulima Resort filed a countersuit against the union, said Doug Carlson, a spokesman for the company.

Development, which is still as much as two years out, will create an estimated 2,500 jobs for the region and stimulate the North Shore's economy by establishing Turtle Bay as one of Hawaii's finest destinations, Carlson said. The master plan provisions for four public parks, a job-training center, a child-care center, five public rights of way to beaches, and a 100-foot shoreline easement for public use, he said.

Members of the Kahuku Community Association supported the project back in the 1980s and they support it now, said Don Hurlbut, president of the Kahuku Community Association.

"Economic development would be good for the North Shore because it will bring jobs and affordable housing to our area," Hurlbut said, adding that many residents who are living in the rural region must take jobs in town to earn a living wage.

"Some people are spending 10 to 14 hours a day away from home," Hurlbut said.

Others like Peter Cole, who first opposed the plan when it was presented in mid-1980s because of potential negative impacts on the region's environment, traffic conditions and quality of life, are outraged that the long-dormant plan could resurface without much due diligence on the part of elected officials and state agencies.

"It's a travesty," Cole said both of the proposed development at Turtle Bay and of the council's failure to take a position on the resolution.

When the original agreement went into effect, Kawela Bay residents were forced out of their homes, which were then demolished, a few pilings constructed and public access eliminated, Cole said.

"With the ridiculous unilateral agreement stating that all public amenities would come only after project completion, the public no longer had access to one of the nicest beaches on the island with the only results being a few ugly pilings that are still there," Cole said.

Cole, who represents the Surfrider Foundation, Oahu Chapter, said the city should make past zoning and the associated unilateral agreement void along with the EIS and require Kuilima Resort Co. to go through the entire planning, permitting and zoning process from scratch.

"To implement this plan 20 years after it was first approved is just obscene," said Mark Cunningham, who is a member of the Defend Oahu Coalition, which was formed to protect the North Shore from large-scale development. "I just don't get it -- they make you renew your car registration annually -- but they'll approve this." [2]

Union dispute

Turtle Bay Resort and the Unite Here Local 5 have been at odds for several years over contract negotiations. The union called for a consumer boycott of the hotel in 2003. In the summer of 2005, Turtle Bay filed a civil lawsuit against Local 5 alleging theft of proprietary secrets. A new contract was agreed to and approved by the union in July 2006.

External Links

This page was last modified 00:15, 20 April 2008 by dKosopedia user Jbet777. Content is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.

Turtle Bay Resort

Contents

Future development plans

Union dispute

External Links

Turtle Bay Resort expansion plans

Union contract settlement

Foreclosure

Gov. Linda Lingle: buy Turtle Bay land