Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell should consider moving a 1-acre “inclusive” playground to the city’s newly acquired parkland in Kakaako makai instead of at Ala Moana Regional Park as is now planned, key City Council members said Monday.
But one of those coordinating the development of the playground Opens in a new tab, which is to include miniature zip lines and a splash pad, said the Ala Moana location was carefully chosen and that many in the public are getting the wrong idea about the project’s intent and origins.
The idea of removing the planned playground from Ala Moana plan drew applause from about 20 parkgoers during a Council Parks, Community Services and Intergovernmental Affairs Committee meeting Monday. The committee asked the administration to give an update on its broad-ranging master plan for Ala Moana.
Council interim Chairwoman Ann Kobayashi said moving the playground to Kakaako is already being discussed in the community. The Caldwell administration and the Hawaii Community Development Authority, the state agency that oversees Kakaako, agreed to the transfer of 41 acres of parks and roads in April Opens in a new tab because the city has experience managing parks and enforcing sidewalk regulations and laws violated by homeless and others in the area.
She said a spot near the Hawaii Children’s Discovery Center might allow the playground and museum to share security and maintenance costs.
Parks Chairwoman Heidi Tsuneyoshi said she’s baffled why the administration is proceeding with the Ala Moana plan when the public is saying “‘we don’t want it, just make the green spaces green, just make the bathrooms clean,’ very very simple things.”
Earlier this month parks Director Michele Nekota said 24 new positions are being budgeted to maintain the lower Kakaako lands.
Sharlene Chun-Lum said her group, Save Ala Moana Beach Park Hui, believes moving the playground next to the Discovery Center would provide “good synergy” for both. “Keeping open green space at Ala Moana Regional Park is essential for the health and well-being of the many park users of all ages.”
After Monday’s meeting Chun-Lum’s group handed over to Caldwell’s office a petition with more than 1,675 signatures asking that five of 18 proposed actions in the master plan, including the playground, be removed.
Audrey Lee of Malama Moana said she doesn’t understand how a project with such a major impact isn’t given much of a description in the latest draft environmental impact statement. “Zip lines and water features in the playground create additional concerns that need to be addressed,” she said.
Mark Yonamine, deputy director of the city Department of Design and Construction, told committee members the site was chosen because it is considered underutilized.
Tiffany Vara, executive director of Pa‘ani Kakou, said placing the inclusive playground at Ala Moana offers families, particularly those with children with disabilities, “a whole day experience for the extended family” where others may be able to swim at the beach or partake in other activities. Placing the facility in Kakaako would make it a “playground specific” destination, she said.
A building with a vendor and work space for the facility would help provide security for the playground, which would be fenced and closed at night, she said. The playground would be free with the proceeds from the vendor going toward security and ensuring the bathrooms are cleaned every hour, she said.
Project construction will be paid for through community donations, Vara said.
