Some Hawaii residents who own boats gathered Friday at the Ala Wai Small Boat Harbor to protest higher slip and mooring fees and the coming privatization of public areas at the state’s largest recreational harbor.
The protest comes as the state Department of Land and Natural Resources’ Division of Boating and Ocean Recreation prepares next month to submit its preferred plan to redevelop the Ala Wai harbor to the Board of Land and Natural Resources, which in April 2018 gave DOBOR permission to seek proposals under a long-term lease
arrangement.
DOBOR has been taking requests for proposals to redevelop Ala Wai Small Boat Harbor sites, including the current harbormaster’s office, the adjacent parking lot, the old fuel dock, the triangle parking lot and the former haul-out area. It’s also gotten approval for a 100% or so jump in boat slip fees to begin Nov. 1. While mooring fees are increasing statewide, they’re rising the most at the Ala Wai harbor.
Protesters say the rent increase and the redevelopment work together to privatize the harbor and limit public access. However, Ed Underwood, DOBOR administrator, has said the goal is to develop the harbor into a world-class marina that meets the needs of residents and visitors who use the ocean for a myriad of activities. DOBOR also has said the fee increase, which the state Legislature wanted in 2014, is past due.
This stance has drawn ire from some protesters, including Kate Thompson, a retired nurse, who plans to submit two petitions to Gov. David Ige on Monday. She’s asking him to base the fee increase on boat size rather than dock size and to reduce the fee increase at the less developed Keehi to $10 instead of $13 a foot. She said a reduction at Keehi would give boaters who need relief from higher Ala Wai harbor costs the option to move to a more affordable harbor.
Thompson, who has had a boat at the Ala Wai harbor for 23 years, says she’s been paying about $253 monthly. Under the new system, she said, her monthly costs will rise to at least $468 but could go as high as $585 depending on how DOBOR decides to measure the dock.
“I’m 61. I was planning on keeping my boat another five years; now I’ll probably only get to keep it another two,” Thompson said. “But it’s not just me that’s affected by this.”
Scott Allen, an urban planning student at the University of Hawaii who lives aboard at Keehi, said the state should consider a lower increase for Keehi since the increase from the approximate $8 a foot it is now to $13 was based on a hypothetical assumption that Keehi already would have had upgrades in place from a $300 million statewide harbor improvement plan.
“The appraisal was not based on actual conditions,” said Allen, who lives on a 36-foot sailboat moored at Keehi. “The increases are going to force some people to move or leave the state, but first they’ll have to sell their boats and that could take 2-1/2 to three years.”
The changes also are frustrating for Sam Monet, a longtime live-aboard at the Ala Wai harbor and chairman of Kumulipo Studios, a nonprofit that recently mounted a failed attempt to get DOBOR to consider its harbor redevelopment proposal. Over the years, the nonprofit’s volunteers have maintained landscaping at the Ala Wai harbor and planted trees that are nesting sites for seabirds.
In the wake of the state’s failed first attempt at a public-private partnership at the Ala Wai harbor, Kumulipo wants to expand its role there. Honey Bee USA, the state’s first redevelopment attempt, went bankrupt in 2016 and still owes the state $500,000. Also, the state hasn’t restored the boating amenities that were removed to make way for Honey Bee USA. Without more oversight, some Waikiki residents, including Kumulipo members, fear DOBOR’s second attempt at a public-private partnership will end just as badly.
That’s why Kumulipo Studios’ desire to restore the harbor to its pre-Honey Bee USA status is getting some traction with boaters. Kumulipo wants restoration of a full-service haul-out and to bring back the harbor’s fuel dock along with ice and laundry services. They’ll also designate a canoe paddling reserve area on the site.
There are a few catches, though. For starters, Kumulipo wants the state to release to the nonprofit about $19 million — the net income it says that the state collected at the Ala Wai harbor from 2011 to 2017 — to fund its plan. It also wants the state’s Hawaii Yacht Club revenue for its community-based plan. Monet said the redistribution of funds is only fitting since “the state has put the Ala Wai Small Boat Harbor under strain and created deferred maintenance by distributing its net income throughout state harbors.”
Another major catch is that
DOBOR said Thursday that it won’t accept Kumulipo’s proposal. “They failed to follow requirements,” DOBOR said in an email.
According to DOBOR’s legal advertisement, to be eligible for consideration, interested parties had to have completed and submitted a notice of intent by 4 p.m. April 22. Kumulipo submitted its proposal by an extended Sept. 30 date, but it didn’t go through the notice-of-intent process.
DOBOR declined Thursday to provide the Honolulu Star-Advertiser with the proposals, which are being reviewed by a team of individuals from government agencies and the community. DLNR also declined to release the names of the committee members.
However, the agency had told the Star-Advertiser earlier that four applicants were going through a vetting process —
that’s three more than last time, when Honey Bee USA was the
only applicant.
At this juncture the process is shrouded in secrecy, but by this time last year, 27 interested parties already had approached the state about redeveloping the Ala Wai harbor. One contender, Dynamic Entertainment Group Ltd., even was interested in building a Ferris wheel and a movie theater with a virtual flyover Hawaii ride.
