Council panel OKs Kaneohe cemetery’s expansion

Plans for an expansion of Hawaiian Memorial Park Cemetery won a key approval from a Honolulu City Council committee Tuesday.

The committee granted the expansion after repeated assurances by officials with the Kaneohe cemetery that they would develop only 28.2 acres for expansion of its burial operations, and that concerns relating to neighboring homes, drainage and flooding, treatment of archaeological finds and environmental issues, including a recently discovered habitat of the protected Hawaiian damselfly, would all be addressed as planning for the project continues.

Transportation and Planning Committee Vice Chairwoman Kymberly Pine, who presided over the cemetery expansion discussion because Chairman Ikaika Anderson declared himself conflicted, said the proposal she and her staff hashed out took into consideration as many of the concerns as possible.

The committee deferred the proposal in February because it felt cemetery officials had not sufficiently addressed the community’s gripes, Pine said. “The plan that was presented to you today (by cemetery officials) dramatically changes the project.”

Pine said the staunchest opponents of the plan likely will still find issue with the latest draft, which now calls for only 28.2 acres to be used for cemetery operations and not be allowed for any other type of development.

To appease those living closest to the park, Pine said, language was inserted calling for “a phased approach to sales and marketing” that would ensure the portion of the expansion closest to Lipalu Street be the final area developed.

The committee approved Bill 57 (2016), with an amendment adding the cemetery expansion, unanimously Tuesday. The bill, technically an update of the Koolaupoko Sustainable Communities Plan, now goes for a final vote before the full Council, possibly as early as Aug. 9.

The bill, which essentially updates the guidelines for development of the Kailua- Kaneohe region, also included a change in language that would allow the much- debated Haiku Stairs, now under the jurisdiction of the Honolulu Board of Water Supply, to be transferred to another part of the City and County of Honolulu, giving hope to those who want to see the popular but now illegal hiking trail reopen.

A separate proposed amendment that would have allowed for a 260-home subdivision near Ho‘omaluhia Botanical Park was rejected by the committee. Pine said the developer needed to have more discussions with the community.

Discussion during more than three hours of testimony, however, was dominated by the cemetery expansion plan.

Cemetery officials promised to:

>> Leave 128 of roughly 156 acres undeveloped as part of a conservation easement.

>> Expand land set aside for what’s to be the Kawa‘ewa‘e Heiau cultural preserve, to be managed by a nonprofit to be established by the Koolaupoko Hawaiian Civic Club, to 14.5 acres from the current 9 acres.

>> Increase the buffer between the new development and area residences to a minimum of 150 feet, up from the planned 50 feet.

>> Place a 2,000-foot buffer between the project and the Pohai Nani senior residential complex.

Even if the Council gives its approval for the cemetery expansion, Hawaiian Memorial officials still need to petition the state Land Use Commission to change classification of the land to urban from conservation designation. A 2009 attempt to secure 50 acres for expansion was rejected partly because the LUC determined it was inconsistent with the Koolaupoko plan.

Cemetery officials said there is a dire need for cemetery space. Of 79,000 existing plots, only 7 percent remain available for families, he said.

Expansion planner Scott Ezer said Hawaiian Memorial officials recently learned that there is an endangered Hawaiian damselfly habitat on the grounds. “We can protect and enhance that habitat as we move forward with more detailed plans,” he said.

The neighborhood around the cemetery “has a history of flooding,” Ezer said. To help mitigate potential flooding issues, Hawaiian Memorial hired a civil engineer to create a grading and drainage plan, he said.

There were arguments both in support of and against the project.

More than 50 Hawaiian Memorial employees and other supporters, donning green T-shirts that said “Support HMR,” packed the Council committee room at Honolulu Hale. Among the supporters, although not clad in a green T-shirt, was former Gov. Neil Abercrombie, who said Hawaiian Memorial has been a good neighbor and donated 33 acres to the state in 1989 for the State Veterans Cemetery.

Longtime Kaneohe resident Mel Kalahiki echoed the sentiments of many of the supporters. “I have family buried there,” he said. “My grandparents are buried there. My mom is buried there. My aunties are buried there. My uncles are buried there. … My brother is buried there. … Everybody in my family is buried there. In the future I want to be buried there.”

But there were also a number of people who testified against expansion.

Julianne McCreedy, who lives near the expansion area, said the project poses health concerns for the neighborhood because of potential groundwater contamination.

“In actuality there are really special kinds of landfills — landfills full of casket wood; casket steel; long, concrete varnished steel; and embalmed bodies full of formaldehyde,” she said. The impact of their degradation and impending seepage into the soil has not been studied extensively in the United States, but deemed a threat to groundwater in other countries, she said.