Lawmakers pass bill requiring maintenance of private roads

State lawmakers passed a bill Tuesday aimed at remedying a sore spot among drivers and businesses in Kakaako.

The measure, House Bill 2275, would require that owners of private roads in the area pay to conform with city standards if they charge for parking on those streets.

It’s not certain whether the bill applies to any entity other than Kakaako Land Co., which owns eight streets and has frustrated small-business owners by charging for parking in front of their establishments.

It’s also unclear how effective the bill would be if Gov. David Ige signs it into law.

House Speaker Scott Saiki, who represents Kakaako and introduced the bill, described it as a public safety measure.

“Its purpose is to ensure that private roads are maintained for the safety of pedestrians and vehicles,” he said. “As Kakaako development continues, it is necessary that roads be maintained for all who use them.”

Improving all privately owned roads used by the public in Kakaako and Kalaeloa, regardless of any use fees, was the original aim of the bill.

Several people testified about bad private road conditions in Kakaako. Some roads lack sidewalks or storm drains, and paving can be terrible.

Sharon Moriwaki, president of community group Kakaako United, said more than 20 private streets in Kakaako aren’t maintained.

“They are in disrepair, with large potholes that make them unsafe to vehicles and pedestrians who continuously use them,” she said in written testimony.

But representatives of several private landowners objected, citing the prohibitive costs of meeting city standards. To comply, they would have to make improvements to road width, drainage, sidewalks and underground utilities. This could require demolishing parts of buildings. Even the city opposed the bill, noting that some of its roads in Kakaako don’t meet its standards.

After being amended by a few different House and Senate committees, HB 2275 was passed unanimously by the full Senate April 6 and by the House on Tuesday.

Ige has until May 3 to act on the bill.

Calvert Chun, who operates Kakaako Land with brother Cedric, declined comment Tuesday. In February he called HB 2275 “legally questionable and unproductive” in written testimony to the House Judiciary Committee.

That committee removed a provision in the bill that would have allowed anyone to sue a road owner to enforce compliance and recover legal costs if they win.

The bill’s final draft leaves enforcement to the Hawaii Community Development Authority, a state agency that regulates development in Kakaako but doesn’t have rules or penalties for privately owned streets that don’t conform to city standards. Garett Kamemoto, interim executive director of the agency, said HCDA staff will have to explore the issue. “The bill doesn’t specify how we would enforce it,” he said.

If HB 2275 becomes law, it would become the fourth time in three years that the Legislature has passed a law to address Kakaako Land’s parking practices.

The company started charging for parking in 2010 and claims to have bought whole or partial segments of Queen, Kawaiahao, Ilaniwai, Waimanu, Curtis, Dreier, Cummins and Kamakee streets in 1985 from the last heir of a man who subdivided parts of Kakaako more than 100 years ago.

Kakaako Land put up signs and painted stalls on streets. In some cases the company established parking where the city had prohibited it. The company also began charging for parking that small businesses had long reserved for their own customers. Seven Kakaako businesses sued Kakaako Land in 2014 over the street ownership claim. That has yet to go to trial.

Lawmakers tried to help in 2016 by creating a law that declared a 1903 Territory of Hawaii resolution that expressed intent to accept ownership of the streets as a retroactive conveyance of the property to the state. This law didn’t produce intended results.

Last year the Legislature established by law a disputed road resolution process, but it doesn’t appear to apply to Kakaako Land roads. That process was created to succeed a 2016 law calling for the formation of a disputed roads commission that was never created.

The city is also doing assessment work to possibly condemn Kakaako Land roads, but this effort could take another two years.