The legal battle continued this week to save 4,000 feet of steel steps built on a sheer ridgeline above Kaneohe from a City and County of Honolulu demolition project.

The Friends of Haiku Stairs on Monday filed a notice of appeal in the Intermediate Court of Appeals to oppose 1st Circuit Judge John M. Tonaki’s December ruling that granted a summary judgment on the city’s motion to dismiss the Friends’ lawsuit to block the removal of the Windward Oahu landmark.

“We’re asking the Court of Appeals to reverse the summary judgment and allow our case against the city to go forward,” Friends President Sean Pager told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser via email.

Mayor Rick Blangiardi’s administration seeks to demolish the over 3,900 steps leading to the top of the Koolau Range, above Haiku Valley and the H-3 freeway, over safety concerns, city liability costs, trespassing and other neighborhood disturbances.

The work to remove what many call the Stairway to Heaven is to be done by helicopters, the city says.

Filed in August, the Friends’ 50-page lawsuit contended that the city had not updated or completed necessary environmental impact studies required to demolish the World War II-era stairs, and had therefore violated basic Hawaii Environmental Protection Act rules.

“We know that a majority of Oahu and Windward residents want to save the Stairs, not destroy them,” Pager said in a written statement. “This majority extends even to the communities who live close to the Stairs — and who have borne the brunt of trespassing as documented by recent door-to-door canvassing conducted by the Kaneohe Neighborhood Board.”

He added, “We are confident that city leaders will eventually heed the will of the public and abandon their misguided attempt to the destroy this historic and much beloved treasure.”

The Mayor’s Office said it was aware of the notice to appeal.

“We appreciate that the court has already found that the city fully complied with Hawaii’s Environmental Policy Act,” a city spokesperson told the Star-Advertiser via email. “We will continue to defend that position, as well as our ability to move forward with this project as planned.”

Moreover, the city says the work to demolish the Haiku Stairs will start soon.

“The removal of the stairs is projected to begin this April or May,” the spokesperson said. “The exact date has not been finalized by the contractor.”

According to the Friends’ appeal, the demolition work would be a “needlessly costly and environmentally destructive action.”

“It would burden area residents with up to two years of helicopter overflights, noise, dust and traffic. And it would cost over $4 million,” the appeal asserts, adding that the city “has also failed to disclose its plans to relocate the stairs to Kualoa Ranch, which poses its own significant environmental ramifications. The city’s decision to remove the stairs without undergoing the required environmental review under state law has denied plaintiffs and the public the opportunity to participate in voicing concerns over the consequences of these proposed actions or to explore less costly, less destructive alternatives. This appeal seeks to restore to them that opportunity.”

Previously, Kualoa Ranch President John Morgan told the Star-Advertiser that his family business has expressed interest in the Haiku Stairs, though not necessarily for preservation. Instead, the Haiku Valley stairs could be installed as a new attraction at the over 150-year-old ranch’s sprawling, 4,000-acre property up the coast.

“We have not worked with the City and County of Honolulu and have not had any formal discussions about the project,” he said previously. “We did speak with representatives of the Board of Water Supply — previous owner of the stairs — during the EIS process, about the idea of relocating the stairs to Kualoa Ranch, and made our interest known in some public meetings.”

But he noted discussions did involve the city-hired company tasked with removing the Haiku Stairs. “Early on, we talked briefly with the Nakoa Cos. about the practicality of relocating the stairs, but have not had any recent conversations with them,” he said.

Regardless, Morgan said Kualoa Ranch will not start the project until the city removes the Haiku Stairs.

The city also responded this week to the Friends’ allegations regarding the city, Kualoa Ranch and possible reuse of the mountainside stairs.

“We have been very clear that the contract for the removal of the stairs dictates that the contractor, not the city, is responsible for what happens with the stairs once they are removed,” Ian Scheuring, the mayor’s deputy communications director, told the Star-Advertiser via email. “There is no agreement between the city and any other private entity to take possession of the stairs once they are removed, and the city is not aware of any agreement between the contractor and a private entity to do so, either.”

Demolition of the metal staircase — first built by the Navy as a wooden ladder system for communications equipment access in the 1940s and later replaced by metal stairs with railings — was to begin at the end of 2022.

On June 1, after a nearly monthlong request for bidders, the city opened just one bid for that demolition project — to be overseen by the city’s Department of Design and Construction — initially estimated at $1 million. The Nakoa Cos. offered to do the work for $2.26 million.

But in a June 29 letter, the city awarded Nakoa a contract for more than $2.34 million — about $80,000 above the Kapolei company’s initial bid submission.

In spite of the looming demolition, the Friends group says it will continue to develop its community-based managed access plan to the Haiku Stairs.

“The plan addresses concerns over safety, trespassing, access, and parking,” the group said in a written statement. “The goal remains to provide for safe, sustainable, and culturally respectful public access to the Stairway to Heaven.”