Question: I regularly use the bike path on the Ewa end of Pearl Harbor. Recently, “No Trespassing” signs appeared at the Hamana Street cul-de-sac entrance to the path. The sign states that the city no longer maintains it and gives a city complaint line (768-4381). I have called but get no response. Is it illegal to use the bike path? Why is city land being closed to the public?
Answer: The answer lies in your second question.
The land at issue — about 40-by-600-plus feet encompassing the Pearl Harbor Bike Path — is not owned by the city. It was conveyed by the city to the West Loch Fairways Community Association in 1999.
For whatever reason, that portion of the bike path is on private land, much to the dismay of the association.
We’ve waited nearly four weeks to get a response from the city Department of Transportation Services about the situation and, aside from being told this was a “sensitive” issue, are still waiting.
The conveyance was done without the knowledge or consent of the association, according to Robert Hochstein, president of the board of directors.
Since the “mistake” was caught in 2001, the association has been trying to get the city to take the land back.
Hochstein said he even has a letter from Ben Lee, managing director under former Mayor Jeremy Harris, essentially saying he “would take care of that.” But “that” never was resolved.
Asked what reason the city gives for not reclaiming the property, Hochstein said the response basically is only, “The property lines are the property lines.”
It was only after “years of frustration, a lot of meetings and frankly a lot of attorneys’ fees” trying to resolve the issue through three city administrations, “we felt that the very minimum we could do, that was reasonable, was to post (no trespassing) signs,” Hochstein said.
He said the city was notified about the board’s intentions a year ago, and the signs were finally posted, “very reluctantly,” about two months ago.
“We certainly don’t want to inconvenience the public,” Hochstein said. “We only did that as an absolute, last-ditch effort. … We just can’t absorb that kind of liability.”
In addition to liability concerns, Hochstein said the association also has to maintain the area, a “considerable” task involving irrigation lines, plants and trees.
“We’re just not prepared to take on a city transportation right of way,” he said.
West Loch Fairways
West Loch Fairways and its sister property, West Loch Estates, were part of a city housing project initiated by the administration of Mayor Frank Fasi, Hochstein said.
Homeowners took possession in 1993.
“In 1999 the city proposed a conveyance of parts of the property to the West Loch Fairways Community Association,” he said. “It went through a redrawing of maps, (and it was only) after the fact, as we were studying the maps, we realized that the city had redrawn the property lines to include a very large section of the city bike path under the homeowners association property lines.”
Mahalo
To a mechanic at Honolulu Ford on Houghtailing Street. I was towing a 30-foot boat up Houghtailing on Nov. 6, and as I crossed North King Street, the trailer jumped off the tow hitch. There was no way to lift the trailer back onto the tow hitch, and it was blocking the right lane and the gas station entrance.
An off-duty mechanic at Honolulu Ford dragged a hydraulic floor jack out to the street and helped
me get the trailer back on. He refused any payment and wished me a safe trip.
Mahalo nui loa to him for helping a driver in trouble. — Michael Roth, Honolulu
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