The Sherwood Forest project at Waimanalo has come to an end, Mayor
Kirk Caldwell announced Thursday.
Caldwell posted a video on his Facebook page Thursday with other stakeholders at Honolulu Hale as he made the announcement.
“It is clear to me that despite our differences about this field, everyone involved in today’s announcement cares deeply about our community, about Waimanalo and about the future we are leaving our kids,” Caldwell said. “I’ve made the decision that this administration is pau with the field and master plan. I am pau with the field and master plan. The next steps are up to this community to determine, but it is time for the land and our community to heal.”
The construction project, originally known as the Waimanalo Bay Beach Park Master Plan, was approved in 2012 and would have included a $32 million sports complex and a 470-stall parking lot on the land under dispute.
The project was heavily contested since the middle of last year and later reduced to Phase I of the plan, a $1.34 million project that would have included a multipurpose field and an 11-stall parking lot.
The only work that will be done at the site following the announcement, according to Caldwell, includes “leveling the construction mounds and planting ground cover.”
Stephen Baginski, president of Kaikor Construction Co., which was contracted by the city to work on Phase I of the project, said the purpose of the work going forward will be to satisfy requirements by the Environmental Protection Agency.
He said they’ll work to “basically clean up what’s there, throw some grass on it and say ‘goodbye.’ In order to fulfill the requirements of the EPA and the Department of Health, the place has to be fully vegetated. So, it has to be fully grassed. The only way
you can grass it is by planting grass and watering it regularly.”
It will include temporary irrigation, although Baginski said the irrigation system will be built above ground.
The announcement is a major win for many in the community as well as Native Hawaiians who fought the project to protect what has become well known as a culturally significant plot of land.
That portion of Sherwood Forest is listed as part of a funerary on the National Register of Historic Places. Previous archaeological digs had shown that the area contains at least 90 sets of iwi kupuna, or ancestral bones, some of which
were estimated to be over 1,500 years old.
Ku‘ike Kamakea-‘Ohelo, president of Save Our Sherwoods, was at the meeting with Caldwell and said he was there “in support of the mayor’s announcement to restore the parcel that we famously know as Phase I in the Waimanalo Bay Beach Park Master Plan. This is a voice of support in the announcement.”
Construction at Sherwood Forest had been a contentious issue since last year and had only grown more so as opponents became aware that human remains from some of Hawaii’s first arrivals were found nearby.
After over a week of heavy demonstrations in September, Honolulu police arrested 28 protesters who blocked construction equipment from entering Sherwood Forest. Construction essentially had stopped since then as Caldwell and other city officials discussed with SOS and other stakeholders how to move forward.
Caldwell eventually scrapped all but Phase I of the project as opponents’ voices grew louder.
He had construction continue April 7 in a move that was widely criticized for putting people at risk during the height of the COVID-19 outbreak in Hawaii. The next day, he halted the project in consideration of the public’s safety.
“Sometimes things gotta get ugly before they get better, and that’s what happened,” Kalani Kalima, also a member of SOS, said. “As makua, we gladly accept the responsibility to utilize lokahi, unity, in all of us coming together, laulima, to work together as one community.”
A fragment of a human bone also was found when Caldwell put the project on pause, and while he did not cite it as a reason for stopping, Kamakea-‘Ohelo believed it played a role in Thursday’s decision.
“After the kupuna iwi was revealed, I think Mayor (Caldwell) had second thoughts about moving forward with the project,” he said. “Basically, everything that we’ve been … advocating for, he took a deep second look at it.”
Tim Vandeveer, the attorney representing plaintiffs currently in a lawsuit with the city over the project, believes the announcement is good news but said he is “cautiously optimistic.”
He said that the Corporation Counsel, the city’s chief legal adviser, informed him of Caldwell’s decision weeks ago, but he and the plaintiffs are still working with the city to ensure that Sherwood Forest stays protected even after Caldwell’s term as mayor is up at the end of the year.
The lawsuit, which alleges the city did not adequately address potential congestion and traffic problems and did not recognize Sherwood Forest’s cultural importance and listing on the national register, is ongoing.
“To the extent that they are talking about abandoning Phase I, that’s very positive. I think a lot of people have worked to make that happen (Thursday),” Vandeveer said. “But we’re really fighting to make sure we get the safeguards that we feel are needed to keep Sherwoods … in its natural state forever.”
Vandeveer said Caldwell has not followed through on previous announcements that the project wasn’t going to go forward.
Mabel Keliihoomalu, who had helped approve of the original Waimanalo Bay Beach Master Plan in 2012, was disappointed that the project was scrapped but grateful that there are more voices being considered.
“I was one of those who planned it and worked really hard to get the (money) in there and spent 10 years getting it through the city,” she said. “It hurt that we lost those funds for our community, but I am happy that we are able to come back to the table and incorporate everyone’s manao.”
The announcement also appears to be a win for those who wanted another area for sports in Waimanalo, because Caldwell said $1.2 million in the city budget will be allocated to repairing nearby Azevedo Field, which has been in need of repairs because of its poor soil conditions.
