Eight privately owned streets in Kakaako that have been a source of community consternation could become city property under a proposal to condemn them following difficulties with a recently passed law that was supposed to give ownership of them to the state.

A Honolulu City Council committee held a public hearing Tuesday to discuss a resolution proposed by Councilwoman Carol Fukunaga to use the city’s power of eminent domain to acquire the streets claimed by Kakaako Land Co.

The Committee on Executive Matters and Legal Affairs deferred action on Resolution 16-213 but plans to take the issue up again at its next as-yet-unscheduled meeting.

Several Kakaako residents and small-business owners attended Tuesday’s hearing and testified that potholes and reserved parking on the roads present public safety hazards that warrant having the city assume jurisdiction over them.

“We need help,” said Judith Atiyeh, a resident in the Pacifica Honolulu condominium tower that fronts part of Waimanu Street owned by Kakaako Land.

Atiyeh said Kakaako Land rents out parking spaces along Waimanu that block Pacifica’s lobby and impede safe use of the streets, the tower’s parking garage and a service bay. Some parking spaces even front city no-parking signs.

“This is very, very unsafe,” she said. “Somebody’s going to get hurt. It’s causing us all a great deal of worry.”

Kakaako Land, which did not testify at the hearing, restricts parking but otherwise allows public use of its roads.

Kathy Dean, a resident in the Imperial Plaza condo tower fronting part of Kawaiahao Street owned by Kakaako Land, said it’s like she is living in a “never-never land” where the city refuses to maintain the roads and Kakaako Land doesn’t respond to requests to fill major potholes.

“It’s ridiculous to try and drive these streets,” she said.

Bob Emami, owner of The Car Store at 836 Ilaniwai St., said the potholes get worse every day, and told council members that city police and fire officials won’t do anything about a Kakaako Land parking space that blocks a city fire hydrant.

“This is not acceptable,” he said. “We voted for you and we expect you to do something.”

The resolution would condemn portions of Queen, Kawaiahao, Ilaniwai, Waimanu, Curtis, Dreier, Cummins and Kamakee streets.

Kakaako Land, led by brothers Calvert and Cedric Chun, has reserved-parking signs and yellow-lined parking stalls on most of these streets and charges $100 or more a month per stall. The company also tows cars parked without approval.

Chris Collins, a representative of Hawaiiana Management Co., asked the Council to add a portion of Clayton Street to its condemnation resolution because Kakaako Land owns part of this road that is the only way for owners of the Vanguard Lofts condo to reach their parking garage. Though the condo owners have a right to use the street, maintenance responsibility is not specified.

City Department of Design and Construction Director Robert Kroning said it would take a little over 2-1/2 years to condemn the streets, given the need for land surveys, appraisals and compensation offers. He said he did not have any estimate on what it might cost taxpayers.

Kroning also said there wasn’t too much he could add because the city is a defendant in a lawsuit that some Kakaako small-business owners filed primarily against Kakaako Land to challenge the company’s ownership claim.

Kakaako Land claims that it bought the roadways in 1985 from the sole remaining heir of a developer who subdivided portions of Kakaako and sold the lots but kept ownership of the surrounding streets.

The developer, Charles S. Desky, was willing in 1903 to give the territory his interest in seven roads — Hustace Avenue; Kawaiahao, Cooke, Ward, Cummins and Laniwai streets; and a Queen Street extension of South Street — according to a resolution by the Territorial Legislature that year.

The resolution directed the superintendent of public works to accept a deed for these streets, but there is no evidence a deed was ever conveyed.

Hawaii lawmakers attempted to give the state ownership of these roads this year by passing House Bill 2604, which became law in July and simply says “the acceptance by the territorial legislature or the legislature of a dedication of land by a private owner is sufficient to convey title to the state.”

But the Department of Land and Natural Resources has opposed its selection as the entity to assert ownership under the new law. So Kakaako Land parking signs and stalls remain in place.

Rep. Scott Saiki, the lawmaker who introduced the bill, told City Council members he is working with the state Department of the Attorney General to see if the law can be implemented, but that the safety issues give the city a basis to take ownership through condemnation.

Fukunaga said condemnation represents the “most comprehensive solution” and noted that it was something a city task force created last year by the Council recommended in a March report.