Mayor Kirk Caldwell announced Tuesday that the construction project at Sherwood Forest in Waimanalo will be put on hold after expressing concern about gatherings of protesters during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I greatly support the First Amendment rights of all members of our community but I am greatly concerned with gatherings during this time,” Caldwell said in a statement. “Therefore, in order to allow for people to focus on staying at home during this time, I am going to pause this project while we consult with the appropriate entities. We will continue to consult with officials from SHPD (State Historic Preservation Division) and the Oahu Burial Council.”
Caldwell was criticized for resuming construction during the health crisis and while residents are under stay-at-home orders to minimize the spread of the new coronavirus, which grew to 410 cases in Hawaii after 23 new cases were announced Tuesday.
Construction of the $1.43 million project, which involves an 11-stall parking lot and what Caldwell called a “grassy field” where people can gather and cultural activities can take place, was originally part of Phase I of the 2012 Waimanalo Bay Beach Park master plan.
Honolulu City Council Chairman Ikaika Anderson, Lt. Gov. Josh Green and Honolulu Councilwoman Kym Pine were among the elected officials who called on the mayor to stop construction.
Earlier in the day, Caldwell reported that a 3-inch “iwi fragment” was found on the construction site Monday, and work had stopped in the vicinity of the find. He said he met with SHPD officials and that construction was allowed to continue with a protective buffer around the area.
Much of the opposition to the project has come from Native Hawaiian activists who want to preserve the 74-acre Sherwood Forest, where about 100 iwi kupuna, or ancestral bones, have been found.
An archaeological monitor on-site Monday spotted the bone fragment during construction.
“We stopped work immediately and examined the bone. We got an osteologist out there to actually confirm that it was human,” said Paul Cleghorn, senior archaeologist for Pacific Legacy, the cultural resources management firm doing archaeological monitoring for the project.
Cleghorn said an on-site meeting among Pacific Legacy, SHPD, a city representative and a few community members Tuesday led to the decision to leave the bone in place. It was secured in a “boxlike contraption” and covered in sand.
He said it is a temporary solution in which they can “treat it respectfully and leave it alone for right now, until we can figure out … how to deal with it, how to treat it appropriately.”
Cleghorn said the bone fragment was not modern, but probably “pre-contact to early historic aged.”
Save Our Sherwoods President Kuike Kamakea-Ohelo, who was at Sherwood Forest all day Tuesday, said stopping the construction was the right thing to do but that the project should be scrapped altogether.
“We urge the city to cease and desist from further desecration of our iwi kupuna by stopping the Phase I construction permanently,” Kamakea-Ohelo said in a statement. “We also expect that the city will do everything in its power to protect the site to ensure the iwi remain undisturbed until the next steps are determined.”
Tracy Puana of Friends of Sherwood Forest said Caldwell’s decision to halt construction was too late.
“We had 12 feet of vegetation Sunday. … Today (Tuesday) the entire area has been re-grubbed and there is no vegetation left. So, in a year’s time that historic site has been desecrated completely twice,” she said. “I think it’s criminal.”
She said it was “political suicide” for Caldwell to continue with the project during a health crisis.
Correction: >> An earlier version of this story misidentified Tracy Puana by using her maiden name.
