To honor Prince Jonah Kuhio Kalanianaole for his commitment to the Hawaiian community, residents have pushed for the renaming of Nanakuli Beach Park to Kalanianaole Beach Park for many years.

The City Council approved the name change Wednesday in a resolution introduced by Councilwoman Kymberly Pine, who described the move as “quite a significant thing that is happening.” She added that the city would seek community input to change the park’s sign.

“They (residents) really saw Prince Kuhio as the father of the homestead community,” Pine said at Wednesday’s Council meeting. “He dedicated his life to the Hawaiian culture. It just would mean so much to the people of the district to give their prince this honor.”

According to the resolution, the city approved a measure that named the 40-acre park Kalanianaole Park in 1940, but Pine said it was changed to Nanakuli Beach Park later on. In 2009, the Nanakuli-Maili Neighborhood Board voted to support the name change to Kalanianaole Beach Park and reaffirmed its position in August.

In a letter to the Council, neighborhood board Chairwoman Cynthia Rezentes wrote that the renaming would “honor our past history for this important part of our community.”

Board member Richard Landford also told Council members that “the community really, really wants it back that way.”

“We, the natives of the district, have been waiting patiently for the actual name that should be there,” Landford said.

Kalanianaole, the nephew of King Kalakaua and Queen Kapiolani, served as a delegate to the U.S. Congress for many years. He was named prince after Kalakaua and Kapiolani adopted him and his brother, David Kawananakoa.

As an advocate for the Hawaiian community, he championed the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act that created the homestead program, which now serves thousands of Hawaiian families.

He also formed the Hawaiian Civic Club in an effort to promote the social, economic and civic status of Hawaiians. Kalanianaole died in January 1922 before the first homestead was settled on Molokai.

When the state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands moved its headquarters to Kapolei in 2008, the two-story building was named Hale Kalanianaole and dedicated on Prince Kuhio Day in his honor.

Native Hawaiians make up 31 percent of the nearly 12,700 Nanakuli residents, 15 percent of the 9,500 Maili residents and about 22 percent of the 13,200 in Waianae, according to the 2010 U.S. Census.

Karen Awana, a member of the Nanakuli-Maili Neighborhood Board, wrote in a letter to the Council that “it would be befitting to rename this beach park in his honor.”