SIERRA CLUB JOINS LAWSUIT AGAINST KUILIMA RESORT COMPANY ANDCITY AND COUNTY OF HONOLULU FOR SUPPLEMENTAL ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENT

The Sierra Club, Hawai'i Chapter officially joined the efforts of local community group, "Keep the North Shore Country" in a lawsuit against the City and County of Honolulu, Director of the Department of Planning and Permitting Henry Eng (the "County"), and Kuilima Resort Company ("KRC") to require a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement ("EIS") for KRC's Resort Expansion Project at Kawela Bay and Turtle Bay Resort, O'ahu, Hawai'i (the "Kawela Bay Project" or "Project").

The First Amended Complaint, filed June 7, 2006 in the First Circuit Court of the State of Hawai'i, names the Sierra Club, Hawai'i Chapter as a co-plaintiff in the litigation. The litigation -- widely publicized in recent weeks -- stems from the massive development planned for Turtle Bay Resort on the North Shore of O'ahu by KRC. The Project contemplates the expansion of the Turtle Bay Resort to 8 times its existing size to approximately 4000 total hotel and condominium units.

The Sierra Club joins Keep the North Shore Country in its concerns that the Kawela Bay Project -- now being undertaken 20 years after the original EIS was completed -- will have significant impacts and cumulative effects related to increased visitor trips; increased peak and non-peak traffic; increased demands on water resources, wastewater capacity and infrastructure; sensitive wetland and endangered species habitats; and aesthetic values which were not present in 1985 and which have not been properly evaluated or considered by the County or KRC.

The Sierra Club, long concerned about urban sprawl and poor planning, is specifically concerned about the potential environmental impacts of the Project, whether the Project's impact has been adequately evaluated and assessed, and the potential impacts the Project will have on its members' activities and enjoyment in the Kawela Bay and North Shore area.

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Contact: Doug Cole (Keep the North Shore Country) 497-0036, Gil Riviere (Keep the North Shore Country) 220-2280

Contact: Jeff Mikulina (Sierra Club, Hawai'i Chapter) 226-4987, Lea Hong, Esq. and Laura P. Couch, Esq. (Alston Hunt Floyd & Ing) 524-1800