Public parking is proposed as company claims streets

Building public parking lots or garages in Kakaako is one idea a task force suggests can help resolve conflicts over a private company reserving street parking — but not restricting vehicular travel — along several roads it claims to own in the area.

The 19-member group mainly made up of state and city officials delivered its report with five recommendations to the City Clerk on March 30.

However, implementing the recommendations will be dependent on city and state actions, perhaps including some by the Legislature, where one bill that attempts to deal with the issue is still pending.

The Kakaako Public Infrastructure and Facilities Working Group was created by the City Council last year to address public complaints mainly from business owners who lost what they considered parking for their customers or the general public in recent years after a firm called Kakaako Land Co. started reserving and charging rent for stalls along several streets in the urban Honolulu neighborhood.

Kakaako Land claims to own portions of at least eight roads — Ward Avenue and Queen, Cooke, Cummins, Clayton, Ilaniwai, Kawaiahao and Waimanu streets. The roads are open to public thoroughfare, but the company posts reserved-parking signs, charges $100 or more a month per stall and tows cars parked without approval.

On a section of Waimanu, Kakaako Land has created parking spaces where city signs say parking is prohibited.

One of the simplest actions proposed by the group is for the state to condemn the roads, improve them, then give them to the city for maintenance. However, the report notes that money for such a forced sale might have to be appropriated by the Legislature, and that the condition of the roads would have to be upgraded to city standards at additional expense unless the city relaxes its street design standards.

The group also suggested that the city or state could build public parking structures or lots in Kakaako “to address the limited public parking issue.” No sites or cost estimates were put forth.

Two other recommendations are that the city could determine whether Kakaako Land is violating any city ordinances and enforce regulations on private roads related to dangerous parking conditions and pedestrian safety.

The last recommendation suggests that the state agency in charge of regulating development in Kakaako, the Hawaii Community Development Authority, require that developers provide “supplemental” documentation showing who owns roads surrounding property they intend to develop.

The group produced its recommendations after four meetings in October, November, December and January. Fourteen of the 19 members are from city and state agencies or are elected officials. Two Kakaako business owners, one area resident and two area neighborhood board members also participated.

Group member Steve Scott of slipper company Scott Hawaii on Kona Street in Kakaako said the road ownership situation has to change.

“Right now it’s untenable,” he said.

Scott said he believes a pending court case challenging Kakaako Land’s ownership claim likely will decide the issue but that the Legislature also could be key.

There is one measure pending before lawmakers, House Bill 2604, that would retroactively convey ownership of Kakaako Land streets to the state.

This bill emerged from House and Senate committees in different forms that could be reconciled by members of a House and Senate conference committee that have met twice to date, on Friday and Tuesday, without reaching an agreement.

HB 2604 would recognize a 1903 resolution by the territorial House and Senate as conveying the streets to what is now the state. The resolution directed the superintendent of public works to accept a deed for the streets offered by their owner at the time, though no one has produced evidence that a deed was ever conveyed to the territory.

State Attorney General Doug Chin has raised issues with the bill, saying in written testimony that beyond the question of whether a deed was accepted by the territory, it is not clear exactly what property the resolution covered.

“The roads are defined by name only and there are no metes and bounds descriptions in the joint resolution,” Chin’s testimony said. “Further, the length, width, and location of the roads may have changed since 1903.”

Meanwhile, litigation is pending between several Kakaako business owners who sued Kakaako Land in 2014 in an attempt to dislodge the company’s ownership claim to the streets.

According to documents in the lawsuit, the roads were initially owned by Charles S. Desky, who subdivided a large section of Kakaako more than 100 years ago. Kakaako Land, led by brothers Calvert and Cedric Chun, claims to have bought the roadways in 1985 from Desky’s sole remaining heir for $5,000 plus returns equal to 25 percent of rental income from the property.

The purchase was made through a quitclaim deed, which offers no warranties against there being other ownership interests in the property.

In 2010 Kakaako Land began restricting parking, the lawsuit said.

Scott said he thinks the city could wind up with ownership because Desky’s heirs didn’t assert control over the roads for decades, making them public assets.

“I think ultimately it’s going to be decided in the courts,” he said.

The task force report noted that because the litigation involves the city and state as parties, most of the agency representatives on the task force were precluded from adopting positions on the recom­mend­­­­­- ations. However, the recommendations were offered as a general group consensus, the report said.