Ala Moana plan for no-leash dog park removed

Plans for an off-leash dog park at Ala Moana Regional Park have been scrapped by the Caldwell administration, city Parks Director Michele Nekota told members of the City Council Budget Committee on Thursday.

The announcement drew applause from members of Malama Moana and the Save Ala Moana Beach Park Hui, as well as other park regulars who were at the committee to oppose Caldwell’s ambitious master plan of improvements.

The committee moved out Resolution 20-21, granting the city administration a special management area use permit to allow the implementation of the Ala Moana Regional Park Master Plan. The original plan lists 17 items, including a dog park, but the committee approved a draft that removes the dog park as well as an equally contentious, privately funded inclusive playground and a reconfiguration of mauka-side parking on Ala Moana Park Drive.

Opponents said the mauka parking reconfiguration — which called for perpendicular stalls — was dangerous and would remove trees and other green space, and administration officials said they were ready to back away from that project as well.

The new draft was introduced by area Councilwoman Ann Kobayashi, who explained that her constituents were opposed to those three items.

The nixing of the dog park comes less than a month after the mayor and the nonprofit Pa‘ani Kakou said they were shelving plans for an inclusive playground facility at Ala Moana and would instead pursue placing a playground in Kakaako.

Along similar lines, although unrelated to Ala Moana, Caldwell announced Monday that he is canceling his pursuit of a major $772 million face-lift of Neal S. Blaisdell Center, citing the growing uncertainty about the financing of the city’s $9.2 billion rail project.

Caldwell’s second term is done at the end of the year, and he is barred from running for a third consecutive term.

As for the dog park, opponents said the original master plan did not include such a facility and that it was included without much public vetting. They also raised concerns about the potential for health issues because of its planned close proximity to the ocean.

With the playground, dog park, mauka parking reconfiguration all still part of what was before the committee, opponents showed up at Thursday’s meeting ready for a fight. But administration officials said they support Kobayashi’s new draft and that the unpopular items were left in the permit application only because it was submitted before the decisions were made to remove them from consideration.

“The administration will support the proposed amendments,” Nekota told Council members, stressing that the mayor still wants the OK to do the other improvements in the master plan, including the repaving of the Magic Island parking lot.

Several parkgoers said they’re still bothered by the potential for the proposed sand replenishment work to bring in materials that could have harmful effects and possibly leave a stench. But David Smith, a coastal engineering specialist with Sea Engineering, said past experience indicates the sand to be used won’t be contaminated and that smell was not an issue with other sand replenishment locations in Honolulu with which he’s been involved.

“Nonetheless, the city has commissioned sand sampling and testing of the offshore sand for contaminants,” he said, including heavy metals, mercury, PCBs, pesticides, hydrocarbons and bacteria.