Kakaako agency too secretive

The state agency responsible for development of Kakaako is taking a major step toward what may be the first of numerous skyscrapers and should invite extensive comments about the plan. Instead, it is keeping details away from the public while proceeding with underpinning support from the Abercrombie administration, which controls much of the process.

The plan to build a condominium tower up to 650 feet high — 50 percent taller than Honolulu’s highest existing building — was announced last December.

When Friday’s deadline for project submissions came and went, the Hawaii Community Development Authority would not even say how many developers had submitted bids or characterize the response for its request for proposals.

That information won’t be made public until hearings in December or January, when the agency board expects to select the winning proposal. This is ludicrous.

Even at this initial stage, taxpayers should not be shut out of a vetting process on such an enormous project that will sit on 2.2 acres of state-owned land. The parcel is prime, with impacts to be significant for the urban core, let alone the surrounding neighborhoods.

Secrecy over of the proposals is one issue; another is the lack of substantive debate about the need to raise long-established building height limits, to 650 feet from 400 feet, to achieve the state’s goals, which include more workforce housing in the area.

But this path has the support of Gov. Neil Abercrombie, as four state department directors are on the HCDA board, and five community representatives will include some appointed by the governor, all but assuring that the board will approve what he wants.

The project, touted as unprecedented, is called 690 Pohukaina, after the street makai of its location, which is also bordered by Keawe Street and Mother Waldron Park. It is to include 300 affordable apartments, 500 market-priced units for sale and 25,000 square feet for state office and library facilities, 30,000 square feet of ground-level commercial space, and a similar amount for high-tech business incubator and innovation space to support economic development.

The eye-opener is the building’s height and that of other buildings on HCDA’s agenda. Of the 16 parcels that are said to be suitable for buildings 400 feet tall or above, four are to be put to the test in Kakaako over the next two decades.

The agency had produced an initial rendering of 690 Pohukaina, which may or may not look like the winning design. The public can’t know yet, since the proposals aren’t being disclosed for fear of public interference as an HCDA board committee evaluates and scores the plans.

The tower could rise above 650 feet, since HCDA board members may govern how tall the building and others in Kakaako may reach.

Anthony Ching, the agency’s executive director, has said the "skinny side" of the building will be positioned from makai to mauka, limiting the scenic disruption.

Supporters of the plan say it can open up views of the mountains from the makai area while skeptics question whether such aesthetics can be made to work.

The agency has proposed the building as transit-oriented, with two rail stations planned nearby by the city and a possible third station near Aloha Tower on the edge of downtown. However, opposition to the rail in court and in November’s mayoral race have cast doubt on the rail project.

HCDA said in a February informational meeting that the building "is not dependent on rail."

The agency also has said that the project will pump $500 million into the economy and create more than 500 construction-related jobs.

These may indeed be true benefits, but for taxpayers who have grown increasingly wary of governmental motives, such statements do not address questions that remain and need to be answered through broad public involvement.

So far, the unfortunate message is that such participation is not welcome — even when it involves public land.