Plans for vacation cabins above the Hawai'i Kai Golf Course and across from the Kai Iwi Shoreline have yet to be submitted for review to the city.

But that isn't stopping a development group called QRM from going before the Hawai'i Kai Neighborhood Board tonight to make an informational presentation of its proposed Manu'uwai and Queen's Rise project.

City Councilman Charles Djou, who represents the community, met with the developer last week.

"I have concerns," Djou said. "I want to make sure that the plans fit in with the environment of the community. It's still very tentative."

The land is owned by Maunalua Associates Inc., a Hawai'i-based company whose stated purpose is for real estate development, ownership, operation and management, according to filings at the state Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs. QRM officials were unavailable for comment, according to their spokesman Frank Cho, a Communications Pacific senior vice president.

The land is zoned for preservation, which allows for construction of vacation cabins as a secondary use to recreational use, said Henry Eng, the city's Department of Planning and Permitting director. It is unclear, Eng said, what the primary recreational use would be.

Developers are proposing construction of 180 cabins, each 800 square feet with a covered lanai. Some will have outdoor kitchens and bathrooms. The land to be developed is on two parcels. The proposed Manu'uwai Recreation Center would cover 83 acres above the golf course, while the nearby Queen's Rise Recreation Center would include 98 acres.

The city's Land Use Ordinance states that outdoor recreation facilities must be used for active sports and recreation other than golf courses. Typically, those uses include playgrounds, parks, botanical gardens, golf driving ranges, tennis courts, riding stables, academies and trails and recreational camps.

According to a news release issued by the development group, hiking and mountain bike trails, rock climbing areas, swimming pools and tennis and volleyball courts are included in plans for the parcels. Visitors would be able to sign up for activities such as golf, horseback riding, fishing, snorkeling and scuba diving.

The cabins would be built in clusters to "minimize visual impact," the news release said.

The developer will need to obtain a conditional use permit from the city planning department. While no public hearing is required for the construction of the vacation cabins, the director of the Department of Planning and Permitting can call for one.

"We don't get a whole lot of these requests," said Eng, who has been the director of the department for 18 months. "It will be a factor that the proposed project is outside the urban growth boundary. But the zoning of the land controls the development."

The only way the city could legally stop the development, Djou said, was if it rezoned the land or purchased it through condemnation.

The city's state urban growth boundary aims to limit the spread of urban development while ensuring there is enough developable land for urban growth through 2020. The plan, currently under review by the city, also stresses protection of natural landscape features, including the rugged coastal lands between Koko Head and Makapu'u Point.

"They'll have to show just cause why the boundary needs to be changed," said Elizabeth Reilly, a member of the Hawai'i Kai Neighborhood Board. "Our urban growth boundaries are being bombarded, challenged."

It is unclear if the second parcel — the proposed Queen's Rise Recreation Center — is a protected view plane as stated in the East Honolulu Sustainable Communities Plan. It is across from the Ka Iwi Shoreline, a state park preserve that runs from Sandy Beach to the Makapu'u lighthouse and to the lookout.

The state is wrapping up safety improvements for the area — the site of land-use battles between a community effort to keep the coastal area undeveloped and the landowner who wanted to put hotels and condominiums on the property.

It spurred the Save Queen's Beach movement and later the Ka Iwi Action Council.

"There are agreements that nothing can be developed at Ka Iwi," said David Matthews, a member of the Save Queen's Beach group, who worked to get the state to purchase the coastal area and turn it into a passive park. "It would be terrible."

Reach Suzanne Roig at sroig@honoluluadvertiser.com.