Every Sunday, “Back in the Day” looks at an article that ran on this date in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. The items are verbatim, so don’t blame us today for yesteryear’s bad grammar.

The state Environmental Quality Commission has ruled that the city should produce an acceptable Environmental Impact Statement before Kuhio Avenue can be widened.

Yesterday, at the request of a vocal group of Kuhio Avenue residents, the commission reviewed its own regulations during a brief public meeting at the State Capitol.

All but two commission members voted that an acceptable EIS is necessary because the widening project fails to qualify for an exemption under standards the commission adopted in 1979.

Commission member Michael J. Chun, the city’s chief engineer and director of public works, abstained from voting. Leonard Leong cast the only vote against the EIS.

But after the voting, Deputy Atty. Gen. Jay Nelson, the commission’s legal adviser, said that the city is not legally required to abide by the decision.

"The city can just go ahead (with the project)," Nelson said. "This decision is not enforceable. The commission is not an adjudicative body."

Nelson added, however, that "a decision of this kind would have great weight in a court case" if a suit were brought to stop the project.

The city has maintained that an EIS is not necessary because the proposed $3.9 million widening between Seaside and Kalakaua avenues would be renovation rather than new construction.

Widening Kuhio Avenue would make it the busiest street in Waikiki and facilitate the possible conversion of Kalakaua Avenue into a pedestrian mall.

Pat Light, a spokesperson for 30 Kuhio Avenue residents who oppose the widening project, said she believes that state law requires the commission to sue the city if work is done before an acceptable EIS is produced.

But commission member Jacqueline Parnell, director of the state Office of Environmental Quality Control, said the commissioners "aren’t going to do anything at all until we hear from the city. And remember, we don’t have the money to sue anybody."

After the meeting, Roy Parker, outgoing director of the city Department of Transportation Services, said the city won’t ignore the commission action.