A handful of bills allowing increased privatization of Hawaii’s harbors was kept alive at the Legislature yesterday despite opposition of some boat owners who also worry about separate development proposals to bring wedding chapels to the state’s largest recreational boat harbor.

Plans to resurrect the Ala Wai Small Boat Harbor’s defunct and dilapidated boat repair business, build a training center for the U.S. national kayak team and construct shops, restaurants and two wedding chapels among the harbor’s operations are on a separate track from the harbor bills moving through the Legislature.

But some Ala Wai Small Boat Harbor tenants such as Les Parsons see the two issues coming together to create a contentious harbor environment.

“We’re concerned about these onerous bills that come our way year after year,” said Parsons, who testified against one of the harbor public-privatization bills. “We basically have our torches and pitchforks ready.”

Honey Bee USA Inc. plans to build two wedding chapels, aimed at Japanese tourists, overlooking the Ala Wai harbor and Magic Island to offset the costs of running the fuel dock and boat repair businesses.

Parsons called Honey Bee’s plans “the camel’s nose under the tent. It seems to be inconsistent to get married next to a place that’s pumping diesel fuel. What else will they put there and squeeze out facilities for the boat owners?”

Reg White, who also lives at the Ala Wai harbor, believes the public-private bills moving through the Legislature are unnecessary and has told lawmakers so in testimony.

Instead, White said in an interview, lawmakers should allow newly appointed Department of Land and Natural Resources Director William Aila, the former harbor master at the Waianae Small Boat Harbor, to “show what he can do.”

“These bills are superfluous, and the whole pile of them should be thrown in the shredder,” White said. “They’re trying to mandate what DLNR is already doing.”

While White opposed HB 1312, one of several similarly worded bills, Honolulu attorney Keith Kiuchi testified that the bill encourages the type of public-private partnerships that will lead to harbor improvements at a “time when the state does not have the money to develop these properties.”

Kiuchi represents Honey Bee USA, which has paid the state a $150,000 development fee for its plans for the Ala Wai harbor and continues to pay the state $15,000 per month as it awaits approval for three permits from the city Department of Planning and Permitting.

Honey Bee is required to operate Ala Wai’s fuel dock and boat repair businesses. But Kiuchi, who used to represent the owner of the boat repair business, said the old operation lost $5,000 per month and could not keep up with the property taxes.

So Honey Bee went looking for ways to generate additional revenue for its $14 million project and decided to develop wooden buildings that will house shops and restaurants, as well as separate wedding chapels operated by wedding businesses and which would close by 6 p.m. each day, Kiuchi said.

Honey Bee is led by Japanese developer Hideaki Shimakura, a competitive yacht racer who primarily develops office buildings in Japan.

The company had never redeveloped a boat harbor and has no experience in the wedding business, Kiuchi said.

Kiuchi could not think of another small boat harbor that also houses wedding chapels, but said the idea makes sense at Ala Wai harbor, in part because it is near Waikiki.

One of the potential wedding chapel operators also wants to market to Chinese and Korean visitors, which coincides with efforts by Hawaii tourism officials, Kiuchi said.

The money-generating chapels are needed to “subsidize the boat repair facility and the fuel dock,” Kiuchi said. “Anybody who believes the boat repair operation can be renovated without substantial income is sadly mistaken.”

But the weddings would have to work around the state’s largest boat harbor, Kiuchi said, and boat repairs would not be shut down for any wedding.

“We want something that’s not going to disturb the people in the harbor,” Kiuchi said. “Both of the wedding chapels have been told that they have to live with the fuel dock and boat repair operation, and not the other way around.”

While some harbor tenants continue to oppose Honey Bee’s plans, as well as bills encouraging even more public-private partnerships, Kiuchi said the bills are necessary to help streamline development at Hawaii’s harbors.

For now, Honey Bee only has plans for the Ala Wai Small Boat Harbor, Kiuchi said.

But the company, he said, “is interested in discussing any development with the state regarding the state’s harbor properties.”