Recent commentaries supported a “nonprofit” organization associated with developers of the Ala Moana/Ward Village areas to take an acre of our public land in Ala Moana Beach Park (AMBP) for the purpose of building a children’s park (“Ala Moana playground welcomes all,” Star-Advertiser, Island Voices, May 26; “Many in the community support Ala Moana park playground,” Island Voices, June 4).

The developers propose to buy us some equipment, put it on our public land and allow us to use it. A gift with many strings attached is not a gift; it is an obligation.

Such a deal would result in the developers saving millions and making hundreds of millions of dollars by not dedicating their own land for parks. There would be no additional parkland to accommodate the additional people.

The 2017 Kakaako Community Development District Plan (KCDD) projects that the population in the Kakaako district will increase from approximately 10,673 people in 2010, to 46,181 people by 2035. I opened my March 2019 Smithsonian magazine and found a two-page ad for a new condo building, Ko‘ula, stating that one should “Register your interest at KoulaWardVillage.com.” Are these the people for whom project proponents are trying to provide a condo-amenity — a “children’s park” at AMBP?

Although I believe park dedication fees should be assessed, there is another option: a Keiki Zone, near the Hawaii Children’s Discovery Center, as outlined in the 2017 KCDD Plan. Why not support a “children’s park” in this area, where it is both planned and desired?

A map in the KCDD Plan identifies a Keiki Zone where “active play is encouraged within the interior of the waterfront park in close proximity to the Children’s Discovery Center and the sports complex. Artistic, unique play structures that inspire discovery and creativity are proposed at this highly visible location.”

Additionally, the KCDD Plan offers solutions for the “only reasonable objection to the playground” — as raised in the June 4 commentary — i.e., the need to establish a mechanism to fund ongoing maintenance. If the maintenance issue is not resolved before building, experience tells us that in a few years we will have broken, nonfunctioning water pumps, not a splash pad, in the same way we have piles of rocks throughout Downtown, Chinatown and Waikiki. No maintenance equals urban blight where once there were beautifully flowing, lava-rock water fountains.

The KCDD Plan offers financial mechanisms for maintenance that have been successfully used in other cities, such as Property Tax Increment Financing, Community Facility District, Business Improvement Districts and other Assessment Districts, Common Area Maintenance, and Conservancies. How these mechanisms work are initially defined in the KCDD Plan.

Given the existing practical alternatives for land availability and maintenance funding, I suggest that the project’s leaders and friends start by funding an islandwide “Children’s Park Plan” that provides for inclusive equipment for our disabled keiki in our community parks. Also, they could determine whether their condo projects provide inclusive equipment for disabled children.

Second, I also implore them to support the Keiki Zone near the Children’s Discovery Center in Kakaako in accord with the 2017 KCDD Plan. Otherwise, it would seem that their motives are self-serving by taking land from the people of the City and County of Honolulu, while not providing additional parkland to accommodate the needs of the thousands of additional people they already plan to bring into the area, all without any guaranteed commitment to future funding for maintenance and operations.

If they reject these reasonable alternatives, then I would ask the state and city officials, “Why have you not assessed these people a park dedication fee to accommodate additional park needs and use?”

Salvatore Lanzilotti, Ed.D., is a retired director of the city departments of Community Services, Emergency Services, and Customer Service.