A Honolulu City Council resolution asking the Caldwell administration to consider moving a planned inclusive playground at Ala Moana Regional Park to elsewhere in Kakaako doesn’t have the effect of law and likely will be ignored.

But Resolution 19-263, which passed 7-0 with four of the Council members voting “yes with reservations” after 90 minutes of testimony and discussion, gave opponents of the plan another opportunity to voice their objections to the proposed 1-acre facility which supporters insist will be developed entirely through private donations.

Mayor Kirk Caldwell could not be reached for comment on the resolution after the vote. But in an interview with the Honolulu Star-Advertiser last month, he said the city was not inclined to change its plan.

All but two of about 25 people who testified at Wednesday’s meeting said they support the resolution and oppose the playground being placed at Ala Moana.

Major reasons cited were that it would take away valuable park land that has long been used as open green space, concerns about the origins and motives of Pa‘ani Kakou, the nonprofit leading the playground’s development, and the fact that the playground was not included in the original draft environmental impact statement for Caldwell’s plan for a major face-lift for Ala Moana.

Kristine Chung, a 35-year Honolulu resident and frequent park user, said Ala Moana “has remained an oasis in an ever more crowded city.” The park is on the Hawaii Register of Historic Places.

“While the mayor has gone to great lengths to give the appearance of listening to the people, it is abundantly clear that he is not hearing us,” Chung said.

Chung and other opponents pointed out that the board of Pa‘ani Kakou is comprised of developers and residents of the luxury Park Lane condominium project across the street from the park, and they include politically influential developer Ian MacNaughton, CEO of the MacNaughton Group, and Alanna Kobayashi Pakkala, chief operating officer of the Kobayashi Group. The MacNaughton and Kobayashi firms developed Park Lane.

But Tiffany Vara, Pa‘ani Kakou executive director, said neither she nor anyone else involved in the group is receiving any personal or professional benefit from their participation. “This is all for the community.”

Envisioned is what’s known as an “inclusive” or “universal” playground with features including a miniature zip line, slides, swings and a splash pad that would make it more welcoming for youths with special needs, seniors and others for whom traditional playground equipment is uninviting. One of Vara’s children, Abbie, who had physical disabilities, died in 2015 at age 13. Vara said she’s been fighting for years for an inclusive playground on the island.

Her group looked seriously at using Kakaako park lands but ultimately concluded it would not be viable for a concessionaire that would run a small snack shop in exchange for maintaining restrooms for people with special needs that would include adult changing stations, Vara said.

Vara said she lives at Park Lane and that she and her husband, Hawaii Pacific Health CEO Raymond Vara Jr., have made political contributions over the years. She said she’s not affiliated with either the MacNaughton or Kobayashi firms and is friends with Pakkala because she was a friend of her disabled daughter.