Two City Council committees held separate special meetings Monday to push out two resolutions that would allow construction of the city’s $5.26 billion rail project to restart as early as Monday.
The Council Zoning and Planning Committee unanimously approved Resolution 13-208, giving the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation a special management area use permit and shoreline setback variance to proceed with construction. The Council Intergovernmental Relations and Human Services Committee, meanwhile, approved Resolution 13-203, authorizing an agreement among the state Department of Transportation, the city and HART that allows the city to develop sections of the rail line on state property from the Kamehameha Highway portion of the project in Pearl City to the Ala Moana area. A previously approved agreement dealt with state properties west of there.
The two approvals on Monday cleared they way for the full Council to take final votes on them Wednesday, the Council’s sole scheduled meeting for September.
Daniel Grabauskas, HART executive director, said the city loses a minimum of $200,000 each day that project construction is halted. He estimated that since a lawsuit halted the project on Aug. 27, 2012, taxpayers have lost between $30 million and $35 million. That doesn’t include about $3 million in outside attorneys’ fees tied to that lawsuit and another still pending. There’s also an unknown amount in indirect costs tied to expenses incurred by city contractors while the project sits idle.
If the Council were to wait until next month’s meeting to approve the resolutions, the project would have cost the city an additional $3 million, Grabauskas said.
"You are literally saving us millions of dollars by holding this special meeting today, so thank you," he told Zoning Committee members.
The State Historic Preservation Division’s approval of archaeological reports tied to the HART project on Aug. 30 put into motion the steps for restarting the project. The Hawaii Supreme Court had decided that the reports needed to be approved before the project could proceed.
Hours after SHPD’s approval, Grabauskas said he hoped work on the project would begin again as quickly as possible, noting a use permit was required by the Council.
Council staff last week rushed to set up Monday’s agendas so that the resolutions could be heard by the full Council on Wednesday.
Several pro-rail organizations testified in favor of the project, while several individuals said they don’t believe the city has revealed all the facts about the cost of rail.
Longtime rail opponent Cliff Slater, who heads Honolulutraffic.com, did not attend the meeting, but told the Star-Advertiser he doesn’t believe it is wise for the Council to expedite the resolutions since his organization’s lawsuit against the project is still awaiting a decision before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. A three-member panel of the court heard arguments from the city and Slater’s group in late August but has not yet issued a decision.
Told that Grabauskas estimated the city is losing $200,000 each day the project is on hold, Slater replied, "If they lose (the lawsuit), that’s peanuts compared to what it would cost them to start up and then shut down again," Slater said.
He said he expects a decision soon because the court expedited the hearing due to the city’s concerns about the costs of delays.
Grabauskas told Council members he is confident the city would prevail before the appeals court.
City Department of Planning and Permitting officials said public hearings were held on the special management area use permit and shoreline setback requests Aug. 2 at Keehi Lagoon Memorial Park and Aug. 5 at the Filipino Community Center in Waipahu. Twenty-one members of the public attended the first meeting, while 13 attended the second but no one submitted oral or written testimony, he said.
