The city would be required to maintain vegetation along roads whose ownership is in dispute under a bill before the Honolulu City Council.

But the administration of Mayor Kirk Caldwell insists it can’t afford to do that, given that there are more than 400 “limbo roads” on the island.

Bill 71, introduced by City Councilwoman Ann Kobayashi, gets its first airing at the Council’s monthly meeting Wednesday at Kapolei Hale.

At the heart of the issue is the narrow, winding stretch of Manoa Road between Waakaua Street and Paradise Park. That road has a lot of traffic because it also leads to Lyon Arboretum and Manoa Falls Trail.

The state has said the city owns that section of road, and the city said the state had jurisdiction, according to Paul Wallrabenstein, whose family moved into a house on Waaloa Road in the early 1970s. The dispute over who should be responsible for the overgrowth behind his house has existed the whole time, he said.

When he was younger, Wallrabenstein would try to maintain some of the wild-growing “rubbish trees” — everything from albizia to koa haole as high as 50-60 feet — that separate his property from the road leading to Paradise Park.

But like others, the 75-year-old Wallrabenstein said he’s too old now to climb up the slope beyond his backyard to deal with the vegetation.

Meanwhile, the trees are growing unwieldy, dropping heavy branches, blocking sunlight, inhibiting what can be grown in backyards and generally creating an aesthetic mess, Wallrabenstein said.

Tree branches, some big enough to cause serious damage, have fallen onto the neighbors’ properties over the years, he said.

Along the road, Paradise Park has hired contractors to clear the vegetation when it gets bad, said Darryl Wong, vice president. He’s not sure how frequently it’s done, but the last time was just a few months ago, he said.

At Kobayashi’s urging, others, including Lyon Arboretum and Hawaii Catholic Charities, which also owns land along the road, have chipped in to help raised funds for tree trimmers as well. And Hawaiian Electric Co. and Hawaiian Telcom hire crews when the trees begin to get close to their utility lines.

Wong, like Wallrabenstein, wants to see something more done.

“We have to think of the individuals first and foremost,” he said.

Kobayashi agreed. Under her bill, the city would be responsible for maintaining trees, hedges and shrubs along the rights of way of disputed roads.

“If a tree falls on one of the houses below,” she said, the city could be paying “for a long time.”

The section of Manoa Road from Waakaua Street to Paradise Park is categorized as private in the city’s street inventory, city spokesman Jay Parasco said. In the past, sections of the road were “disputed” between the city and state, he said.

City Managing Director Roy Amemiya pointed to a 1989 state Legislative Reference Bureau study, “Roads in Limbo,” that identified 437 roads on Oahu where there is disputed ownership between the city and state. The city estimated it would cost roughly $3 million annually, in 1989 dollars, to maintain those new roads.

Kobayashi’s bill, therefore, “has far-ranging ramifications,” Amemiya said.

Parks Director Michelle Nekota will work with Kobayashi to address the Manoa problem specifically, he said.

But the administration will likely raise objections to the islandwide bill.

“At this time, maintaining 437 new roadways would be quite difficult for the city to entertain, given our limited resources,” Amemiya said.