Waimalu no place for tourist zip line

Residential neighborhoods throughout Oahu are under increasing pressure as visitors venture out of the main tourist districts in search of "authentic" local experiences, aided as never before by technological tools that pinpoint formerly off-the-radar hiking trails, snorkeling spots and other attractions.

Websites invite travelers to skip the big hotels and stay right in their favorite neighborhoods, by booking a short-term vacation rental or bed-and-breakfast. Commercial tour operators, too, tout off-the-beaten-path activities designed to appeal to these modern travelers, especially repeat visitors looking for something new to do in a now-familiar locale.

This phenomenon is not limited to Hawaii, of course. Encroachment into what used to be purely residential neighborhoods occurs in popular tourist destinations everywhere, as online travel sites and social media spread the word globally, in an instant.

The natural response is for the neighborhoods eventually to push back, as we have seen on Oahu. The Kailua Neighborhood Board famously voted in 2013 to ask the Hawaii Tourism Authority to stop promoting the Windward Oahu town as an alternative to Waikiki. New parking restrictions have been imposed in Lanikai on certain holiday weekends when streets become impassable. And folks in Waimalu are renewing their opposition to a zip line attraction proposed for a forested area above the Royal Summit neighborhood, off Ka’ahele Street.

Community sentiment should prevail in this latest case; residents are rightly worried that if approved, the zip line project would transform their quiet suburban neighborhood into a tourism hub, which is not the best use of land zoned for conservation and sited well outside areas designated for heavy visitor traffic.

Known as the Waimalu Nature Park & Zipline Canopy Tour, the proposed development by an affiliate of Towne Development of Hawaii Inc. would include seven paired zip line runs and a 1,200-square-foot nature center on a 447-acre property. Customers would be shuttled in by vans making an estimated 33 round trips each day.

The developer describes the project as low-impact ecotourism that would provide jobs, improve security and preserve access to hiking and hunting trails for local people. It says the zip lines would be built and used in such a way as to limit visibility and noise, and that there would be minimal effect on neighborhood street parking because customers won’t drive themselves to the site.

But the Aiea Neighborhood Board, which voted unanimously last year to oppose the project, was unpersuaded, as are the nearly 1,500 residents who signed a petition against the project, submitted by the Newtown Estates Community Association to the Department of Land and Natural Resources.

The company needs a conservation district use permit from DLNR to move forward with development. DLNR echoed the residents’ concerns when it advised the company to complete an environmental impact statement and noted that Oahu visitor sites typically are built in Waikiki and other areas designated for tourism, including Ko Olina, Makaha Valley and Laie.

The company has until October to complete the EIS or request a deadline extension from DLNR, which understandably wants it to address the project’s social and economic effects on the community and disclose its long-term development plans for the parcel. A consultant for the company said it had not decided whether or not to proceed with the EIS, only that the application remains open.

Towne Development should reconsider this plan. Building a completely new tourist attraction on conservation land accessed via suburban streets will impose on everyday people who live in the neighborhood, no matter how hard the company tries to mitigate the negative consequences. This type of conflict will arise again and again as tourism seeps beyond its usual environs. Living in a tourist economy should not mean that there’s no respite for residents for whom grinding traffic is a hallmark of the authentic Hawaiian experience.