Waikiki has to be one of the tourism industry’s great success stories, in at least one sense. Consider: It was always famous as a surf spot for Hawaiian royalty but the larger district was once just marshy agricultural land. Over the past century, it evolved to become first a residential neighborhood, then an increasingly dense commercial zone that grew into a world-famous resort.

The stratospheric rise in the value of the land meant, however, that various comprehensive plans for Waikiki over the decades have been overlooked in favor of short-term development opportunities, leading to crowding. Maintenance and infrastructure hidden under the streets were given short shrift, as recent memories of the massive Ala Wai Canal sewage spill will attest.

All the same, Waikiki is no stranger to planning, and the Waikiki Improvement Association correctly believes it’s time for another round. This visioning process, the Waikiki 20/20 Conference set for Oct. 16, should be less constrained than those of the past, with changes primarily in city regulations allowing developers greater flexibility in remaking the district for the 21st century.

"Looking Back, Looking Forward" is the theme, and the association will look back to review progress since its previous conference 20 years ago. The look-ahead portion will include discussions among two dozen speakers on the district’s next 20 years. Organizers hope the conference will yield basic principles to guide the development of an action plan in six to eight months after the conference.

For those tempted to dismiss such events as crystal-ball gazing, considerable the strides that have been taken in Waikiki improvement since the 1992 meeting, including more than $4 billion invested since 2001, said the association’s president, Rick Egged. Renovations at the Royal Hawaiian Center and the Waikiki Beach Walk redevelopment are standout examples.

In recent years, the 1976 Waikiki Special Design Land Use Ordinance was relaxed through City Council amendments. While the original ordinance had been designed to bring greater continuity to development across the resort district, its rules were very restrictive. The landowners most constrained were those with small lots, Egged said.

In one of the changes, developers were able to comply with public open-space requirements in various ways, he said; for example, sidewalk dining areas could count as part of the open-space provision. In addition, the top 350-foot height limit was not changed, but owners of lots with lower limits may be able to get more leeway.

Finally, strict laws governing signage were changed, most recently in 2009, Egged added. Signs were allowed to be larger and positioned in more areas more advantageous to the businesses, attracting a more vibrant array of retailers, he said.

"The market is different now," he said. "You want to be able to, within commercial parameters, give the landowner more flexibility with their land. That helps with small lots that would have had a harder time redeveloping otherwise."

The result of this liberalization should be a fresher, more modern commercial and resort setting for a visitor district that still has some aging rough spots. But the challenge is to keep enough controls so that Waikiki doesn’t become even more hemmed in than it now seems. Visitors — tourists and residents alike — still want to have that sun-and-sea connection that drew alii there in the first place.

The state economy is linked inextricably to the visitor industry, and Waikiki is still the heart of Hawaii tourism. The outcome of the Waikiki 20/20 Conference should be of interest to every island resident.