Opposition grows against Paradise Park’s redevelopment

Opponents of a planned tourist attraction with commercial hula shows and luau buffets amid gardens deep in Manoa Valley have a new opportunity to contest the project following a lapsed permit for the work.

The owner of the former exotic-bird park known as Paradise Park obtained state approval in October 2014 to create a new $15 million attraction dubbed Paradise Park Presents the Hawaiian Cultural Center in Manoa Valley. The permit expired in October.

A board overseeing the state Department of Land and Natural Resources has scheduled a hearing for Friday to decide whether the conservation district use permit should be extended until October.

The plans include nine gardens with indigenous and nonindigenous plants, Native Hawaiian cultural displays, a descriptive history of Manoa Valley with a replica summer home of Queen Kaahumanu, a hula museum, hula shows and possibly a luau.

Property owner Paradise Park Inc. sought DLNR permission for the plan in 2014 by asking the agency to approve changes to its conservation district permit that dates to 1966 and allows the company to operate a botanical and zoological garden for recreational purposes.

The original garden, which included aviaries and a 300-seat covered amphitheater, was opened in 1968 by local developer James W.Y. Wong. It closed in 1994, though a few pieces such as the Treetops Restaurant and a gift shop continued operating. Wong’s son, Darryl, is spearheading the redevelopment plan with assistance from his father.

DLNR administratively approved the requested change in October 2014 after concluding that the proposed new uses weren’t a different or greater land use than allowed. The decision endorsed by the agency’s board applied to two initial phases but not a third phase which includes an outdoor luau venue and a possible parking lot expansion.

The agency’s action was criticized by some Manoa residents concerned about noise and traffic. The area neighborhood board voted 14-0 in early 2015, urging DLNR to reconsider its decision because it contended it was made without community input.

Neighborhood board members argued that its two community meetings involving the park plan were not well publicized or attended, and that a presentation park representatives made to the board didn’t include much detail.

“Once residents became aware of the redevelopment, a large outpouring of community concerns became evident,” the board’s resolution said.

DLNR responded in a letter saying the neighborhood board expressed support for reopening Paradise Park as a garden celebrating hula in 2011 and provided no feedback on comments it received from the agency about Paradise Park’s plans in 2010, 2013 and 2014.

Much of the community concern involves the park’s goal to attract close to 400,000 tourists annually.

Under rules imposed by DLNR in 1990 and 1993, the park’s annual visitor capacity was limited to 430,000, and operating hours were restricted to between 8 a.m. and 10 p.m. There also is a limit of 24 tour buses visiting the site daily.

Darryl Wong previously said the company strives to be a good neighbor and will urge tour operators to use vehicles seating no more than 24 passengers.

The younger Wong anticipated in late 2014 that an initial phase with a “hula garden” displaying flora important to Native Hawaiians for hula, an imu and restored pond once used for duck shows would be done by the end of last year. But work didn’t progress as planned, and the permit expired in October.

In November, Paradise Park submitted landscaping plans to DLNR but was told that the permit had expired a month before and that the company could seek an extension from the agency that would be considered by its board.

Local attorney Derwin Hayashi said in a letter to DLNR that prior legal counsel representing Paradise Park never let the company know that work under the amended permit had to be done within a year.

DLNR’s board will consider the extension request, which the agency’s staff recommends granting, though now there is considerably more opposition.

Opponents of the plan established a Save Manoa Valley website and a Facebook page and are soliciting donations to help pay for signs, handouts and organizing efforts.

The Facebook page urges residents to make their voices heard at Friday’s meeting.

“If you live in Manoa Valley or in Hawaii for that matter imagine this for a moment,” a post on the page says. “A commercial operation — Paradise Park — using a permit granted 50 years ago, presenting a revised three-phase plan to build a development on conservation land, adjacent to a stream, and located in the back of one of the most pristine valleys on our island? Included in that 50-year-old permit are allowances for an increase of 500,000 cars a year and countless buses all traveling freely up a road that narrows to a single lane. … All of this without being required to obtain an EIS — Environmental Impact Statement — and local residents never being granted the opportunity to give input to the (DLNR) board that granted the permit. After 50 years, and only due to the permit lapsing, are the citizens of Hawaii finally going to be given an opportunity for their voices to be heard. Let’s make this count people.”

DLNR also said it received a petition in September from the Outdoor Circle with about 750 signatures wanting Paradise Park to produce an EIS.

Suzanne Case, DLNR’s director and chairwoman of the agency’s board, said in a written notice earlier this month that the Paradise Park project is exempt from an EIS because the scope of the plan is limited to re-landscaping and reusing existing facilities with negligible or no expansion or change of prior use.