Staff with the state Board of Land and Natural Resources is recommending denial of a challenge to the city’s effort to secure a site for a temporary homeless assistance encampment at Sand Island.

Assuming the board takes the advice and votes to reject the challenge at its meeting Friday, the city would then be able to start preliminary work on its Temporary Mobile Access to Services and Housing project on 5 acres of state land just beyond Sand Island Bridge.

The staff report concludes that Pacific Alliance to Stop Slavery, which filed the challenge, "is not entitled to a contested case hearing by statute."

Previously, BLNR member Christopher Yuen had said he was told that contested case proceedings can only be used on the board’s decisions on permits and other entitlements, but not leases. In the quasi-judicial contested case process, all sides present their arguments to a hearing officer.

The city is seeking a right-of-entry and free, three-year lease to the site "for temporary shelter and assessment purposes," what officials also have described as a transitional center, until more permanent settings can be established through its Housing First initiative. The board gave the city a conditional approval on Sept. 12.

But on Sept. 22, the human rights group Pacific Alliance to Stop Slavery petitioned for a contested case proceeding challenging the decision, saying the city should first conduct an environmental assessment of the property.

An earlier state Department of Health study suggested the site may contain contaminants because it was once a dump.

City officials have insisted that they have not yet been able to examine and do tests on the soil at the site, but that they will not proceed with using the site if hazards are found there that cannot be remedied.

City Managing Director Ember Shinn said in a statement that denial of the contested case hearing allows the city right of entry so it can continue its due diligence of the site. "The first priority will be to do the soil study to ensure there is no health risk to users of the site," she said.

Shinn earlier said the city hopes to have the site, with service agencies, in the next two to three months.

The Sand Island project has raised strong objections from PASS Executive Director Kathryn Xian and other homeless advocates. Besides the potential health concerns, opponents say it is in a remote and dangerous area. Xian said Kakaako, where many homeless families now camp, would have been a preferable location.

People will be forced to live there because a recently enacted ban against sitting and lying on Waikiki sidewalks will leave them with nowhere to go, Xian said.