City officials are trying to jump-start a long-stalled idea to transform the dingy banks of the Kapalama Canal into a sparkling park where the community can congregate.
Public input is being sought for the design for what’s being described as a “linear” park, which would run along the canal banks along Kohou and Kokea streets, from the mouth of the canal at Nimitz Highway to just mauka of H-1 freeway.
The city hopes to collect ideas for the planned park at an initial community workshop at 6 p.m. Thursday at Palama Settlement Dining Hall, 810 N. Vineyard Blvd.
The idea for a park around the canal has been talked about by Kalihi-Palama leaders for decades.
But the impending arrival of the East Kapolei-Ala Moana rail line makes it a good time to move on plans for a park, said Harrison Rue, the city’s transit oriented development administrator. The 20-mile line is now expected to be completed in 2024.
“We’re basically going to come up with a design for the public space that would integrate with surrounding development over time as we get closer to rail and we’ll explore a range of options with the community,” he said.
The city has a $750,000 contract with WCIT Architecture to come up with preliminary planning, a design and an environmental impact statement.
Those at Thursday’s meeting will see renderings and photos of the canal’s past, and how areas around canals have been developed elsewhere in the world, Rue said.
Among the ideas expected to be discussed are widening the sidewalks and narrowing the roads to encourage walking and biking, and building a pedestrian bridge to connect the Honolulu Community College campus with the restaurants and other businesses on the Ewa side of the canal. Public feedback will guide the consultants as they start to formulate several design options.
The Kapalama rail station is slotted for the HCC side of the Kokea Street-Dillingham Boulevard intersection. As with all the other transit-oriented development zones along the route, the city is hoping housing and other new, mixed-use development will occur there.
Kamehameha Schools and HCC are the major landowners in the area and both are expected to be “willing partners” in redeveloping the area, Rue said.
How much the park will cost will depend on the design. Those who develop in the area may be asked to kick in, Rue said.
Area Councilman Joey Manahan recalls embracing the idea of a park for the canal more than a decade ago when he participated in then-Mayor Jeremy Harris’ community vision team for the area.
“That was always what we envisioned for Kapalama Canal,” he said. “It’s always been seen as a gathering place. With transit-oriented development, it’s going to be a catalytic project for us. It’s going to be a focal point for the TOD.”
Irene Fujimoto, past president of the Kalihi-Palama Community Council, remembers discussing the idea of a park along the canal as far back as the 1950s. “It was one of our biggest projects,” she said.
The community held major cleanups at least once a year and a church in the area even built a raft that would go into the canal so volunteers could dredge the bottom, Fujimoto said.
The vision team from the early 2000s funded park benches and other amenities that spruced up the area along the canals, she said.
“It was beautiful,” she said.
Several years ago, however, a large influx of homeless people, ousted from downtown and Chinatown by the city’s sit-lie ban and related sidewalk enforcement ordinances, began camping along Kapalama Canal’s banks. The city surrounded the canal with a fence, a move that forced the homeless elsewhere.
Not everyone in the area is excited about a Kapalama Canal park.
Shirley Hilton, owner of Kahala Pacific Floors, said the homeless that used to gather in front of her Kohou Street storefront have moved to nearby Kaumualii Street since the fence was put up.
Hilton said she worries that widened sidewalks and other amenities will encourage the homeless to return to the canal, especially after dark. “They’re just going to make a nice, paved, clean area for them to camp,” she said.
Narrowing the streets, she said, could result in more dangerous conditions for an area heavily traveled by large commercial trucks that already have a hard time with visibility. Loss of parking could also be a problem for area businesses, she said.
Hilton emphasized that she’s not against a park but contends concerns need to be addressed first. “Who doesn’t want it to be beautified, but are we preparing a place for the homeless to be more comfortable?”
