After last year’s tumultuous, unsuccessful attempts to upzone some of its Kakaako lands to allow residential condos, the state Office of Hawaiian Affairs has regrouped with a new strategy.

Improved and more inclusive, OHA’s approach now includes a series of public sessions, to collect community feedback on how best to use and financially optimize its 30 acres of Kakaako waterfront.

The public must take this prime opportunity to engage in an important community dialogue; it might not come this way again.

Starting this week and into next month, OHA will host open meetings around the state to gather ideas; the first will be 6 p.m. Tuesday at the John A. Burns School of Medicine (see box).

This process is in sharp contrast to a year ago, when OHA — and key supportive legislators — tried to override a vital state law that restricts use of land makai of Ala Moana Boulevard.

In the public interest, the law requires development there to be low-level and free of private residences. That 2006 law restricting Kakaako Makai use was in response to a previous attempt by Alexander & Baldwin to develop three condo towers there.

In January 2014, state Sen. Brickwood Galuteria introduced Senate Bill 3122, which would have "authorized "residential development by OHA on specified parcels in Kakaako Makai" and exempt "development from public facilities dedication requirement."

Attempts also were made to allow OHA to double the current 200-foot height limit in Kakaako Makai.

But public pushback quickly grew, rightly so, to protect the hard-won public accessibility to the waterfront. It was, fortunately, successful.

Further fueling the alarm over ulterior motives and dubious process was SB 2992 SD1, which would have exempted meetings of OHA’s board of trustees from the state Sunshine Law’s open meetings rules.

That bill also deserved to die and ultimately did; it is unacceptable that weighty decisions with such major community consequence be conducted in secrecy, without public knowledge and input.

So it is good that now, one year after those disturbing bills and moves, OHA is bringing its Kakaako Makai discussions out into the open.

At issue are nine land parcels deeded to OHA in 2012 as part of a $200 million settlement with the state over ceded-lands claims.

In accepting the lands, OHA fully knew the restrictions on their use:

» Five parcels are at the water’s edge — 13 acres from the old Fisherman’s Wharf Restaurant to the edge of Kakaako Waterfront Park next to Point Panic. These sites have a 65-foot height limit and allow relatively low density.

» Two parcels inland behind the five oceanside lots, each with a 200-foot height limit and zoned for mixed-use.

» Two parcels Ewa of the others, both zoned mixed-use — one abutting the ocean has a 45-foot height limit on development, the other inland off Ala Moana Boulevard has a 200-foot height limit and allows the most density.

Clearly, mixed-use commercial development can occur on these lands, and OHA should be permitted the opportunity to succeed; the agency should be allowed to fulfill its land-use entitlements and fiduciary duty to benefit Native Hawaiian beneficiaries.

OHA has now conceded that no residences will be put on its Kewalo Basin waterfront parcels, saying instead that with community input, it wants projects there to "create a Hawaiian sense of place" that will "balance pono and commerce."

That’s a welcome step in the right direction; much can be achieved with smart urban planning, to realize a truly iconic, relevant use of Kakaako Makai.

Today, OHA stands poised at the drawing board with the community, at the start of a waterfront vision. Nothing exists in a vacuum in Hawaii, and done well, OHA’s master plan could be a visionary, inclusive blueprint infused with the energy of its booming mauka neighborhoods. But with a public resource as precious as Honolulu’s waterfront, utmost care must be taken, and open access must prevail.

DISCUSS KAKAAKO

OHA’s Kakaako Makai meetings will be held 6-8 p.m., starting Tuesday.

Here is the Oahu schedule (see http://bit.ly/1B8ejax for the neighbor islands’ meetings):

>> Feb. 17, John A. Burns School of Medicine, Room 314 of the Medical Education Building 

>> Feb. 18, University of Hawaii-West Oahu campus center, Room C-208 

>> Feb. 19, Waialua Court House

>> Feb. 20, Windward Community College’s Hale Akoakoa, Room 105 

>> Feb. 23, Ka Waihona Public Charter School cafeteria