Residents respond to initial project plan for Kam Drive-In site

PEARLRIDGE—Nearly a hundred concerned residents attended the Aiea Neighborhood Board meeting Monday night, as developers presented their plan for a massive retail and residential development at the Kam Drive-In site. Residents raised concerns of traffic and over-development.

Los Angeles-based Robertson Properties group (RPG), in front of a packed Pearlridge Elementary cafeteria, presented a rough outline for plans of an 180,000 square feet site with retail and residential space. The meeting was a formal introduction to the project as no application has been put in yet for the development.

In the outlined design, there are plans for three 35-story residential high rises with 1,800 residential units. Surrounding these high rises would be retail units creating a shopping center that would include a market as the main focus and large gathering areas for people to sit and relax or enjoy live events. With the motto of “Live, Work, and Play,” RPG is looking to create a “town within a town” by developing an urban village where there is more walking traffic and a more lively community. 

“We are trying to create an environment for young and old to partake in,” said John Manavian, Vice President of Real Estate Development for the Robertson Properties Group. “We’re not talking about luxury condos for outsiders looking to live, this will be for the work-force people, those in Aiea looking to move in.”

Since 1962, an affiliated RPG entity has owned and operated the Kam Drive-In site, until 2007 when that same entity purchased the Kam Drive-In property from Kamehameha Schools with the plans of redevelopment. RPG is not allowed under contract to open any retail that competes with Pearlridge Mall that is owned and run by Kamehameha Schools. That means, if there is a Quiznos Sub Shop at Pearlridge, RPG can’t open a Quiznos Sub Shop.

RPG’s mission statement for the newly designed site: “Create an urban village where all members of the community can experience the social, cultural, educational and economical benefits of it carefully designed, properly entitled, and well thought out.”

Even though the Kam Drive-In plan was designed well before Oahu’s own rail transit plans, RPG is hoping that the City and County will support the transit-oriented development project like this. The project would be made to be closely relevant to the transit stop planned a half mile from the project site at the corner of Kaonohi and Kamehameha.

Residents in attendance at the meeting raised concerns and opposed the plan. The main concern from the majority of testifiers was the issue of traffic. Many spoke out about how there is already too much traffic in the small-congested area, and this type of huge project no matter what will cause more traffic in the area.

As Manavian emphasized during the presentation how he wants to keep Aiea urban, many residents fired back opposing the thought of losing even more cultural value in Aiea as it would lose a landmark-type site.

“Those three tall towers are just going to create even more of a domino effect—more and more buildings will go up. It’s going to turn into another Waikiki,” said Aiea resident John Burns. “You (RPG) bring up ‘keep the country, country’ and how its important. Well we have no more country, and this type of project isn’t helping. There is the Waianae Coast and some of Northshore left and that’s pretty much it.”

Even with an outpour of concerns and complaints by residents, RPG and Manuvian said they would continue to push for the initial design plan.

“Everyone that is attendance right now, even if a vote was taken and everyone opposed the plan, I’m still going to try and go with what we think is the best proposal, which are the three high rises and talk to others in the community that have listened yet,” said Manavian. “I know everyone would love to see us turn it into a huge park, but that’s not what we are, we don’t buy land to turn it into parks, that’s just not what we do.”

The timeline for the project has not been set yet, but studies are going to begin this summer, then soon after an application will be made that will take six to eight months to complete.