The spectacular mountainside staircase known as Haiku Stairs, whose fate has been clouded for more than 30 years, was officially handed over to the city Wednesday with the aim of transforming it into a public attraction.

The Board of Water Supply formally transferred ownership of the staircase, also known as the Stairway to Heaven, along with the 200 acres that surround it.

“Haiku Stairs is world famous as one of the most breathtaking hikes in the world. I’m very pleased that we will be able to save this treasured site from being torn down,” Mayor Kirk Caldwell said in a statement.

The city is now responsible for maintaining security until an operator is chosen to run the popular staircase with 3,922 metal steps that climb to Puu Keahiakahoe ridge 2,820 feet above sea level and boasting distant ocean views.

Caldwell told reporters Wednesday that the city will solicit proposals from private companies or organizations that want to run and manage the staircase.

“It’s going to be more difficult with the pandemic,” the mayor said of the bidding process. “There was a lot of interest pre-pandemic because there were a lot of visitors. But we know the visitors will come back, and we know this is going to be a key attraction.”

He added that he’s hopeful the request for proposal will go out before the end of his term in 2021.

Caldwell said he’s confident the city, working with he Honolulu Police Department, would be able to provide the kind of security and oversight that would satisfy the concerns of neighbors who have long complained of trespassing and other issues related to the visitors who have been climbing the stairs illegally for more than 30 years.

Access to the Haiku Stairs will be established at a location that should help keep the public from interacting with the surrounding neighborhood, he said.

The city likely will establish a fee structure to pay for upkeep and maintenance, the mayor said, and it will probably be similar to the one at Hanauma Bay, where visitors pay and Hawaii residents’ admission is free.

Vernon Ansdell, president of the Friends of Haiku Stairs, welcomed the transfer but was reluctant to declare victory.

“I’m very encouraged,” he said. “But we still have a long way to go obviously.”

In 1997 the U.S. Coast Guard was prepared to remove the stairs after decommissioning a navigation station in Haiku Valley, but held off after city and state officials expressed interest in taking over the stairs as a public resource.

The city in 2002 spent $875,000 upgrading the staircase in anticipation of acquiring the property around the stairs from the Board of Water Supply, which had declared the acreage surplus and unneeded for future water source development.

The acquisition, however, stalled in the wake of challenges to the creation of a legal public thoroughfare to the bottom of the stairs.

The staircase dates back to the 1950s when the Navy replaced a wooden ladder installed during World War II to access radio transmission equipment on the ridge.

The Coast Guard took over in 1975 and allowed public use of the stairs under a system that required visitors to log in and sign a liability waiver.

But legal access was terminated in 1987 after vandals destroyed portions of the staircase.

The fact that it was legally off-limits didn’t seem to stop the hiking public even though BWS was spending about $250,000 a year on private security. The agency estimated that 10,800 people have been turned away since 2017.

The agency has long sought to unload the stairs, calling them a liability problem that didn’t support the board’s mission of providing water.

BWS spent close to three years working on an environmental study assessing options for the stairs before last year formally determining its preferred option was to remove them.

In April the agency’s board voted unanimously to accept Caldwell’s proposal while being urged on by the vast majority of testimony from nearly 3,800 people who wanted the 50-year-old metal stairway to be maintained.

“We are pleased to have our Board make a decision that allows us to move forward and ultimately remove liability from BWS. We have been working closely with the City to ensure a smooth transition of responsibilities.” BWS Manager Ernest Lau said in a news release Wednesday.