Kakaako Makai’s master plan reflects public needs

Some things are not what they seem when facts and history are brought to light (“School seems to fit Kakaako site,” Our View, Star-Advertiser, Aug. 7).

The master plan for Kakaako Makai, actively developed by community consensus and formally adopted by the Hawaii Community Development Authority in 2011, reflects the recreational and cultural needs and desires of the larger community for Honolulu’s remaining shoreline open space.

Despite assurances of respecting the adopted master plan, the former HCDA board and executive director embarked on a diverted path of “exclusive negotiations” with private developers and offshore speculators for commercial and private uses of this public park land, thus segmenting and flying in the face of community-based planning for Kakaako Makai. These misplaced scatter-shot proposals included a 9-acre fenced shoreline commercial light show area and a private preschool/child care campus at Kakaako Waterfront Park.

As for recreational open space to benefit the public health and welfare of Kakaako’s residents and families, the former HCDA executive director and board incredulously categorized building lobbies, concrete decks and driveway median strips within the density of Kakaako Mauka as sufficient for this fundamental outdoor need.

The present HCDA board appointed by Gov. David Ige includes respected professional planners and community-centric members who recognize the importance of the community-based Kakaako Makai master plan and its significant guiding principles. Further concurring is an independent review of Kakaako’s parks undertaken by planning consultants in accordance with Hawaii’s established environmental review process.

Comes now Seagull Schools, seeking a commitment from the present HCDA board to move ahead with development of its private preschool/child care campus on public park land within Kakaako Waterfront Park.

School representatives at the recent HCDA hearing disclosed they were approached by HCDA staff in 2013 and encouraged to lease this public park land for 65 years at $1 annually,

ultimately spending $427,000 for preliminary designs and planning next to raise $6 million for development of their private campus within the park boundaries.

Apparently unbeknownst to them was the HCDA’s 2011 master plan that calls for this area to become public parking for this side of Kakaako Makai. Kakaako Waterfront Park’s present vast surface parking lot capacity would be relocated within a new multi-level parking facility integrated with the park’s maintenance facility site, screened from the shoreline behind the park’s hill.

Placing this parking facility unobtrusively at this location is to ensure the larger priority of providing vital recreational open space for Kakaako Mauka’s projected population of 30,000, and Honolulu’s present and future generations, with completion of the continuous green open space connecting Gateway Park and Kakaako Waterfront Park from Ala Moana Boulevard to the shoreline.

Public infrastructure including sufficient water and sewer capacity, central parking facilities, public parks and schools must be part of the planning equation to support the Kakaako Mauka residential area. As the jurisdictional permitting agency, it is HCDA’s responsibility to ensure that these needs are met.

Schools at all levels are needed for Kakaako Mauka’s growing population. We urge the new HCDA board to work with the state Department of Education to pursue a comprehensive plan for well-placed educational facilities, both public and private, in Kakaako Mauka, and to set aside land within this new residential area and establish development commitments and fees from its developers to ensure equitable educational access for all of Kakaako Mauka’s children.

Indeed, a phoenix has arisen from the old incinerated ashes of Kakaako — the new, akamai and enlightened HCDA board that is winning the community’s trust and support. Working together, there is restored faith that Kakaako Makai and Kakaako Mauka will emerge compatibly as a new community with a very special recreational and cultural public shoreline area.

Michelle S. Matson, left, is president of the Oahu Island Parks Conservancy, Wayne Takamine, center, is chairman of the Kakaako Makai Community Planning Advisory Council, and Robert Crone is a Honolulu architect/planner; all three are founding members of the Kakaako Makai Community Planning Advisory Council.