Putting course proposed in Waikoloa

KAILUA-KONA — The county planning director has recommended that a proposal to build a roughly 5,800-square-foot 18-hole golf putting course next to Kings’ Shops in Waikoloa be approved.

That request, made by KS Owner LLC, is on the agenda for the Leeward Planning Commission’s meeting Feb. 15 at the West Hawaii Civic Center.

The approximately $400,000 project would be developed in two phases, with the first nine holes to be completed within two years of the approval of a use permit from the Leeward Planning Commission and the remaining nine to be completed within five years.

The proposed course, as well as a ticket booth and restrooms, would be built on a roughly 6,300-square-foot portion of the parcel that is currently the site of Kings’ Shops in Waikoloa. KS Owner LLC is the listed owner of that property, according to the county real property tax office.

The course would be located on the mauka portion of the Kings’ Shops parcel next to Roy’s Waikoloa, according to a Planning Department background report.

Parking for the course would be in the Kings’ Shops parking lot on an adjacent property directly across Waikoloa Beach Drive from the shops.

The course will be designed and constructed by Southwest Greens Hawaii, a franchise of Southwest Greens International.

The site of the planned course is currently landscaped with grass and a concrete walking path. The applicant has proposed to take out the lawn, along with some trees and shrubs, and put in place 6 inches of base material, as well as irrigation equipment and synthetic putting greens.

The concrete walkway would remain, with landscaping installed between the greens.

In its report, the Planning Department recommended the commission approve the permit request, saying it’s consistent with zoning codes and the county’s general plan. As a condition of approval, construction of the course must be completed within five years of the permit’s effective date.

Given that the course will be constructed on previously developed land, no formal archaeological study was submitted as part of the application. The archaeology branch chief of the State Historic Preservation Division said in comments addressed to the planning director that no historic properties would be affected by the project.

If any historic resources, such as human skeletal remains or structural remains, are identified during the course’s development, work in the area must stop and the State Historic Preservation Division be contacted.

No study on plant or animal resources was submitted with the application given that the area has already been landscaped with native and non-native plants.