This issue goes beyond just the development of Turtle Bay and its impact to the environment and the areas infrastructure. There are also very important marketing and social issues that need to be considered. The development of Turtle Bay will brand the North Shore as a major tourist destination. The North Shore will become Oahu’s next Waikiki. Many in the community will make a lot of money, but the North Shore will no longer be a residential community. It will be a resort, mix-use community. The majority of the residential neighborhoods near the beaches will be converted into visitor lodging via illegal vacation rentals and B&B’s.

Why? Because the entire North Shore will be marketed as a vacation destination that offers an outer-island experience on Oahu. Property owners will not be able to turn down the temptation of collecting $1000 per day rentals from the vacationers. One by one, homes will convert from residences into lodging businesses. If you look at the history of Waikiki, this is exactly what happened in the last 50 years. The only way to avoid it is to enforce the current laws banning the licensing of new vacation rentals and B&B in residential zoned neighborhoods. If enforcement is not effective, the beach-side North Shore residential neighborhoods will disappear.

wrong tonic. Legal accomodation are whats needed to relieve the pressure on the long resident rental market. I worked at Haleiwa homeless village for two years and witnessed the abundance of illegal vacation rentals( closets for $300 per month).

Waikiki has 80,000 units or more, and hotels right on the beach, wall to wall condominiums. The developers are smart enough to know that visitors want an exotic peaceful neighbor island experience on Oahu.