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What should go in the lot across the highway from a famous North Shore snorkeling location?

The answer depends on who you ask.

Currently, the lot next to Foodland Pupukea contains a collection of food trucks selling tacos, coffee, smoothies and shrimp, among other goods. 

The owner of the land is planning to develop this further. Renderings on a website for permanent one- to two-story buildings that would host a restaurant, surf shop, credit union, market, retail shop, and an urgent care center. 

The plan has its opponents. They point to ethical questions about the Honolulu City Council granting an initial permit in 2018, and predict that the development will draw in more tourists rather than serving locals, negatively impacting the nearby protected environment.

The opposition is nothing new. 

What is new – and what has some level of buy-in from city officials – is the idea for an emergency services center to go there instead.

“It was this perfect confluence of EMS and Ocean Safety saying, ‘We need new facilities up here, you are not being well served,’ and us saying, ‘This is what we need,’” said Denise Antolini, president of the volunteer group Malama Pupukea-Waimea. “So those ideas came together at the right time.” 

While an emergency services center at this location is far from certain, city officials are considering it.

A Needed Emergency Services Center

Sharkʻs Cove is part of the Pupukea Marine Life Conservation District, one of three marine life conservation districts on Oahu along with Hanauma Bay and Waikiki. 

Nearby residents live in an area that’s renowned for its natural offerings but lacking in city services. 

The closest ambulance in one direction is in Kahuku, said Jim Ireland, director of the Honolulu Emergency Services Department. The closest in the other direction is in Waialua. 

Before being lobbied to consider this lot next to Foodland Pupukea, he and his team had already been seriously thinking about where along the North Shore to place a hypothetical emergency services center.

“That may include this district substation for the lifeguards. An EMS unit. And it could involve a small area for the police department, maybe DLNR. We’re not really sure yet how it could look, but this is definitely something that we want to pursue,” said Ireland. They even presented to community groups in March and in September to get input.

Ireland’s team is currently considering three locations in the area, including two that are already owned by the city, he said. One would be on the Kahuku side of Sunset Beach Elementary School.

“But (some residents) did come to us with this plot that they think would be a better fit for their community. And we’re looking at it,” he said. 

That entails probing a few considerations for each site. For example: “Are there drainage issues? Are there cultural sites within there that we’d have to be careful of? Are there deed restrictions?” Ireland said.

Another consideration: using the block across from Sharkʻs Cove would require Andrew Yani, the lot’s owner, to sell his property to the city – and that’s far from guaranteed.

Reached by phone, Yani declined to comment. But he emailed a statement and fact sheet detailing why he believes the development project has community approval. 

“The plan for the Rural Community Commercial Center has been a labor of love and a passion project for a long-time North Shore family. They have followed all permitting processes fully as well as followed the 2011 North Shore Sustainable Communities Plan precisely. This fact sheet is an attempt to set the record straight after legal threats and bullying by a vocal minority,” he wrote. 

Inertia favors Yaniʻs development. At the Honolulu City Council’s monthly meeting on Nov. 1, council members to grant Hanapohaku LLC a two-year extension for getting a development permit. This was the third time an extension was granted since the City Council approved an initial permit in 2018. 

had flowed in from both sides of the issue. 

In the end, only council member Matt Weyer, who represents the North Shore, voted against granting an extension.

“I’ve been talking with the departments about ways the city could possibly purchase a portion or all of those three parcels and provide an ocean safety hub,” he said afterwards by phone.

During the hearing, council member Andria Tupola and chair Tommy Waters also expressed tentative support for the idea. 

Antolini is hoping that this push can convince Yani to consider selling to the city. It’s part of her group’s relatively new strategy for opposing the commercial development.

“We felt it was our responsibility – our kuleana, this is our community – to come up with an alternative that we do want. To be positive and proactive,” said Antolini.

After about a year and a half of conversations about this, she said, they decided on the emergency services center, which would complement an already-existing city fire station across the street. They even hired a planner to draw up some renderings.

This would still be a tradeoff in some ways, given the fragile marine ecosystem right on the door step. 

Walking along the makai side of the road, Antolini pointed to an area where she said runoff from the development’s earth leveling for earlier upgrades had spewed into the ocean. 

Wouldn’t construction of an emergency services center also cause that same runoff?

“That’s one of the reasons we’ve proposed a much smaller footprint,” she said, as well as features like swales to help collect and filter runoff water. These are included in the renderings the group commissioned. 

“Any development on that site is a concern, but we would make sure the first responders center has gold-plated environmental protection,” Antolini said. 

Who Do The Businesses There Benefit?

The current businesses do have more pizzazz than one would expect from an area zoned for everyday residential needs. 

Next to a surf rental shop, signs point in all directions to destinations near and far: Australia is 5,598 miles away southwest; France is 7,582 miles away northeast.

Features like this, say opponents, support their argument that this is a spot geared toward tourists, which goes against the zoning requirements that businesses there should primarily serve the local community.

On a recent Monday, Civil Beat approached a few employees at the site’s businesses and asked about the proportion of local residents to tourists. Most employees declined to be quoted, and estimates varied wildly. 

But the general sense was that although tourists make up the bulk of overall customers, plenty of local regulars also patronize the area. 

“We obviously do get a lot of tourists, and that’s probably our major source of money that comes in,” said Kaleb Christensen, general manager of the Seven Brothers food truck at Sharkʻs Cove.

“But I think that – especially at night – the locals do come in,” he said.

Minutes before, Christensen’s team served a man in a Honolulu Fire Department shirt, presumably somebody who works at the station across the street and walked over for lunch. 

Christensen graduated from Kahuku High School and has been working at Seven Brothers for about seven years, he said. He thinks that in the long-term, further development would be good for the business since it might bring more customers in. But he also said construction would bring a difficult interim period that would disrupt normal business operations.

“My livelihood is based on my income here,” he said.

He understands nearby residents’ issues with the noise, which would only increase during construction, but added that a lot of other employees at the site also rely on it for their livelihoods.

“There’s always pros and cons to each side,” he said. “So I mean, it depends on who you talk to.”