Council balks at decision on Bikeshare at Kapiolani Park

The city-sponsored Bikeshare Hawaii program gets underway today — minus about 10 docking stations within Kapiolani Park because of a dispute over whether they should be allowed there.

Members of the Honolulu City Council, acting in their role as trustees of the Kapiolani Park Trust, are tasked with deciding what should go at the park, but chose to hold off after hearing from city and state attorneys Tuesday.

The trust also heard from members of the Kapiolani Park Preservation Society who first raised strong objections to the idea of using parkland, resulting in the elimination of 10 existing parking spots, for what they view as a commercial venture.

City attorneys Tuesday declined to give a legal opinion on the matter in a public setting but suggested that their preliminary view was that Bikeshare stations would be OK on trust lands. State courts previously ruled it was not a violation for the city to put up bus stops and bus facilities around the park because they are considered a means for park users to access the facility, Deputy Corporation Counsel Don Kitaoka said.

“It’s actually your job to determine whether (Bikeshare stations) fall within the definition of the trust,” Kitaoka said. Parking lots, parking meters and bikeways were all also deemed appropriate for park use, he said. “Whether you equate bike-sharing facilities with bikeways, that’s something you can consider.”

Corporation Counsel Donna Leong, Kitaoka’s boss, said she would share her department’s formal opinion with Council members in a closed setting at a later date.

State Deputy Attorney General Hugh Jones told the trustees that his agency has also been looking into whether allowing the Bikeshare operation would violate the trust.

Donna Ching, a member of the park hui’s board of directors, said the Bikeshare stations are just the latest in a series of city proposals to use trust land “for a commercial and exclusive use, which is a direct violation of the trust.”

Ching emphasized that her group’s opposition was not based on the merits of Bikeshare.

“If Jesus Christ wanted to come to Kapiolani Park and have a Bible study class and charge money for it, you’d have to say no,” she said.

There cannot be bike stands for the exclusive use of Bikeshare customers for the same reason there are no permanent soccer goal posts at Kapiolani Park, Ching said: “That would constitute an exclusive use for soccer players, so the goal posts have to be rolled off the field when the soccer players are not on the field.”

Ching said the courts deemed buses an allowable use only because the precursor entity, Honolulu Rapid Transit, was operating trolleys when the Kapiolani Park deed was first executed in the 1890s and therefore was “grandfathered” in.

Not everyone objected to the installation of Bikeshare stations.

James McCay, a Waikiki resident, said he supports Bikeshare at Kapiolani Park even if it takes away parking stalls that he uses. “This is not a stand-alone system; this is one part of a much more complicated, intertwined system” that will help residents and visitors get around.

McCay said the Bikeshare stations would likely help bolster the park. “It’s the reason why I purchased my property there. It’s the reason I live there. It’s my backyard,” he said.

Bikeshare Chief Executive Officer Lori McCarney said the program will hold off installing the Kapiolani Park stations until there is a go-ahead from city officials.

“We’re not unlike TheBus,” McCarney said of its $2 million infusion from the city. As a nonprofit, Bikeshare Hawaii hires for-profit Secure Bike to run the system.

“The difference being in most places, the city purchases the equipment, and instead of putting that purchase of equipment onto the city, we were able to get the operator to finance the equipment. So then the risk doesn’t fall to the taxpayer; it falls to the operator.”

Ching said the Bikeshare controversy highlights the need for Council members to consider turning over trustee responsibilities to another entity because their fiduciary responsibility to the city conflicts with the duty to maintain Kapiolani Park as a free and open recreational facility for Oahu’s residents.

A new panel could consist of knowledgeable stakeholders and “subject matter experts” such as the Kapiolani Park Preservation Society, people from the neighborhood and park officials, she said.