UPDATE: Justices Decline to Reconsider Turtle Bay

Michael Levine/Civil Beat

The Hawaii Supreme Court said Tuesday it would not review its April decision that requires developers at the Turtle Bay resort to update an environmental study before moving forward with a massive expansion. The circumstances surrounding the project have changed even if the project itself has not, the court said in its original ruling, which is now essentially final.

In the decades since the environmental impact statement for Turtle Bay's expansion was first approved in 1985, Oahu's North Shore has experienced changes to its traffic patterns, and endangered monk seals and turtles have become more prevalent in the area, environmentalists argued.

The court, without comment, on Tuesday issued an order [pdf] backed by Chief Justice Ronald Moon, Justices Paula Nakayama and James Duffy and Circuit Judge Derrick Chan, in place of Justice Mark Recktenwald, who recused himself.

The order denied a motion for reconsideration [pdf] filed by Turtle Bay developers Kuilima Resort Co. in the days after the court's April 8 decision [pdf]. Civil Beat previously covered the impact of the decision, the reconsideration motion and a subsequent argument from the development community criticizing the court and trashing environmentalists.

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