HONOLULU, Hawaii -- Opponents of new development on O'ahu said Tuesday the city is giving special treatment to the company that owns Turtle Bay Resort, but city officials said they disagreed with that claim.

Some residents said the city is fast-tracking permits to allow five new hotels to be built.

The "Defend O'ahu Coalition" said they were worried because Turtle Bay's owner, Oaktree, is negotiating the sale of the resort to Starwood Hotels.

The group gathered to urge the city to first address environmental and traffic concerns, activists said.

"We don't think it is appropriate that we should subject ourselves to bumper to bumper traffic," said Carol Phillips, the Defend O'ahu Coalition President.

The city's permitting office said there's no fast-tracking going on and that Oaktree got city permission to build more hotels at Turtle Bay 20 years ago.

The city said all Oaktree has now is a preliminary subdivision permit that was granted in September and added that it still needs to meet many more conditions before it can build.