The Honolulu City Council this week gave Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s administration a permit for a host of improvements at Ala Moana Beach Park but made sure the list of projects doesn’t include an “inclusive” playground, dog park or changes to the parking on the mauka side of Ala Moana Drive.
The Council voted 9-0 Wednesday to approve Resolution 20-21 Opens in a new tab, which grants the city a special management area use permit to proceed with a series of improvements that are part of Caldwell’s ambitious master plan for what’s generally regarded as Oahu’s busiest park, averaging 4 million visitors annually.
The key, new language inserted into the measure at this month’s Zoning, Planning and Housing Committee by area Councilwoman Ann Kobayashi states, “The Applicant shall not construct the dog park, reconfigure the parking on the mauka side of Ala Moana Park Drive, or construct the playground” as represented in the master plan, the plan’s final environmental impact statement or other documents.
Over the past two months, the administration has announced it wouldn’t pursue the playground, dog park or mauka parking projects, so Wednesday’s vote was expected and somewhat anticlimactic.
Nonetheless, the vote was met by enthusiastic applause by about a half-dozen park regulars, including leaders of Malama Moana and the Save Ala Moana Beach Park Hui, all of whom had opposed the most contentious projects.
At the heart of the master plan’s opposition has been a plea to keep the park the way it’s largely been known: a mostly passive park where people lounge on beach chairs, barbecue, fish for guppies, do some outdoor activities and swim in waters protected by a shallow reef.
The park always has been noted as “a beautiful green oasis with picnic areas, walking paths and a wonderful beach — right in the middle of the city,” said parkgoer Brad Frye. “You are protecting a legacy that future generations of Oahu ohana will be able to love and enjoy as they have in the past.”
For more than a year, critics of the master plan accused Caldwell and his administration of ignoring parkgoers’ concerns by proceeding with the controversial projects despite public outcry.
Bruce Lum, a member of the Save Ala Moana Beach Park Hui, thanked Kobayashi and the other Council members for listening to the public’s concerns.
“It is a priceless gift from our City Council when the people can conclude a chapter like this on a high note of cooperation, aloha and goodwill, a clear example of a win-win for government and the people,” Lum said.
Council members, in turn, applauded those who had fought for the changes.
“This Council, all of the members, listened to the community, and all of you in the community have never given up letting your wishes and your concerns be heard … and that’s why every member of this Council listened,” Kobayashi said.
Among the opponents’ early concerns was the
administration’s plan to create a widened pedestrian promenade between Ala Moana Drive and the sand. The parkgoers argued that widened walkway would take away sand and parking, and the project was scrapped by the administration Opens in a new tab.
The proposal that drew the most public criticism involved a plan for a “world class” and “inclusive” playground that would take into consideration the needs of children and adults with special needs on the mauka-Diamond Head end of the park. The nonprofit Pa‘ani Kakou announced it would design and raise the funding necessary for the public playground, and presented renderings that showed zip lines and a splash pad Opens in a new tab. Opponents said the playground was out of character and not part of the original master plan.
While most of the people testifying opposed the playground, a small number said they liked the idea of a playground that accommodated children with special needs and supported having it placed at Ala Moana.
Further controversy ensued when it was reported that most of the Pa‘ani Kakou board was comprised of residents of ritzy Park Lane condominium complex across the street or were tied to the project’s developers the Kobayashi Group and the MacNaughton Group, and that many of them had made campaign contributions to Caldwell and various Council members. Opponents accused Caldwell of favoring campaign donors by allowing Pa‘ani Kakou to dictate where the playground would be built, a charge the mayor called “ludicrous.”
In December, Pa‘ani Kakou members said they were shifting gears away from Ala Moana and instead planning on putting up the playground in Kakaako several miles away Opens in a new tab. That led the administration to announce the Ala Moana playground canceled. Jubilant opponents of the Ala Moana playground said they would help the nonprofit with its Kakaako plan.
Opponents of the dog park were surprised earlier this month to hear Parks Director Michele Nekota announce before the Zoning Committee that plans for the canine facility would be scrapped Opens in a new tab.
Administration officials said the playground, dog park and mauka-side parking improvements were left in the original draft of the resolution only because the decisions to remove them came after the plan was submitted.
Opponents still have some issues with what’s left of the plan, including the sand replenishment of the beach and Magic Island parking.
The original master plan listed 17 projects in all. Remaining projects include improving the edges of the park’s two ponds along with their pathways; creating wider pedestrian bridges at Piikoi and Queen streets; increasing to 185 (from 81) the number of stalls in the “Keyhole” area; renovating McCoy Pavilion; repairing the arched portals at the Atkinson Drive entrance; improving the Kamakee Street entrance; and relocating the maintenance yard and Ocean Safety staff office.
City officials acknowledged most of the projects would not be completed before Caldwell’s term as mayor is done at the end of the year and said that the master plan will provide a blueprint for his successors.
