They are at it again.

The state Department of Land and Natural Resources’ Department of Boating and Ocean Recreation Division is proposing to pay the University of Hawaii $66,000 to come up with a new framework for redevelopment at the Ala Wai Small Boat Harbor after previously spending $100,000 to do nearly the same thing.

DOBOR Administrator Ed Underwood told the Board of Land and Natural Resources on Friday that the money was needed to hire the University of Hawaii Community Design Center to provide “proof of concept planning and design services for the development of the Ala Wai Small Boat Harbor.”

Underwood’s request didn’t generate any public testimony and was easily passed by BLNR.

But critics say DOBOR is putting good money after bad, since spending the $100,000 to hire consulting firm DTL Hawaii didn’t lead to a successful request-for-proposals process. Also, they say the timing is off as the state is operating at a deficit and developers aren’t likely to bite in this poor economy. If the state has money to spend, the boating community and some Waikiki stakeholders would rather it go toward security, maintaining the bathrooms or fixing broken boat slips, which, given the wait list, could bring an immediate return.

Waikiki Neighborhood Board Chairman Bob Finley said, “We are so badly underfunded for next year. Now we’re going to throw another $65,000 at that project, which is going nowhere — it’s really stupid.”

>> PHOTOS: Ala Wai Small Boat Harbor

In October 2019, DOBOR came up empty-handed after a committee reviewed proposals for redevelopment of the Ala Wai Small Boat Harbor. The scope of the proposals was to include a 112,580-square-foot tract where the harbor office and a triangular paid parking lot now sit; a 38,369-square-foot tract that fronts Ala Moana Boulevard near the Waikiki Prince Hotel; and a 15,199- square-foot tract where a fuel dock once stood.

In November 2018, DLNR said 27 interested parties, including one that is exploring building a Ferris wheel and a movie theater that offers a virtual reality flyover Hawaii ride, had approached the state about redeveloping the Ala Wai Small Boat Harbor.

However, only four applicants qualified to submit proposals, and only two submitted proposals by a Sept. 30, 2019, deadline.

DOBOR’s RFP selection committee, composed of public- and private-sector individuals, rejected the two proposals. They said one did not follow the proper process and that the other did not meet development objections.

At the time, DOBOR blamed the drop in interest on RFP requirements that were derived from public outreach such as limiting construction to tw0 stories, which put constraints on financial feasibility.

Underwood told BLNR on Friday that after the failed RFP procss, DOBOR “went and met with some of the folks to ask why they didn’t submit a bid, and one of the reasons was that they felt that what we were asking for was too broad and they wanted us to narrow our focus.”

Over the summer, Underwood said, DOBOR did a pilot with a University of Hawaii class, which submitted a design proposal for the harbor.

“We thought that was a great idea,” Underwood said. “They are moving along, but we need to finalize this agreement so we can complete it and be able to pay them for their services.”

Hiring UH is a signal that the state is finally ready to move forward on the Ala Wai harbor redevelopment.

But it’s unclear whether the community is ready. Some stakeholders say they still have a general distrust of the project and DOBOR’s process.

Anxiety about the future of the public recreational area has been heightened since the state, years ago, broadened the harbor’s redevelopment options through Act 197 and HRS 171-6(19), paving the way for a public-private partnership.

It didn’t help that DOBOR’s first attempt at a partnership failed after Honey Bee USA — a company that planned to add a wedding chapel and entertainment complex to the harbor — went bankrupt in 2016, leaving a wake of creditors, including the state, which is still owed $500,000.

DOBOR’s request Friday to hire the University of Hawaii as yet another consultant in the process is hardly reassuring, said Waikiki Neighborhood Board member Kathryn Henski.

“What is going to be different than the other studies that they’ve already done? There are stacks with dust on them,” Henski said. “Why are they hiring a UH class? What is their experience? Why not someone with naval architectural experience or ports and harbors?”

It was as long ago as April 2017 when DOBOR hired the consultant firm DTL Hawaii, a self-billed “Hawaiian strategies studio,” to conduct public outreach to help determine the future of the Ala Wai Small Boat Harbor redevelopment sites.

According to a description on a state requisition and purchase order dated April 4, 2017, the state paid DTL $99,885 to “prepare a master plan, including public outreach and infrastructure assessment planning for the Ala Wai Small Boat Harbor.”

DTL’s proposal to the state said it would incorporate feedback into three alternative conceptual diagrams of planned uses and development strategies and that the final alternative would be further refined down “to conceptual landscaping, parking configurations, building area tabulation and entitlement road map.”

In December 2017, DTL delivered the “Ala Wai Small Boat Harbor Community Engagement Findings & Conceptual Plan Final Report” (808ne.ws/DTLreport).

DTL’s report says it collected more than 649 comments throughout their outreach, not including comments from eight meetings with stakeholders, which drew 52 individuals and thirteen organizations.

In its report conclusion, DTL said, “Information is intended to be utilized by DOBOR and future partners to create a plan that is more aligned with the community and cultural lineage of the site. As was mentioned, however, this report does not include any environmental, marketing, utility, or engineering studies, which are critical in determining what is feasible at the site.”

Rob Johnson, general manager of The Ilikai, a condominium building that overlooks the redevelopment sites, said the DTL effort fell short, and this latest one is likely to fail, too.

“They shut the public down during all the different meetings that they tried to have. They haven’t listened to what the public’s needs are,” Johnson said. “They went ahead and spent $99,000 to DTL before, but we never did get a master plan.”

Johnson said the state’s latest actions are flawed, too.

“All the state wants to do is get a check from somebody. They want to wash their hands and get a check from a developer with a vision of just doing a development,” he said. “They tried that with Honey Bee, and it failed; and they want to try with another developer in the worst economy in 100 years, and it will fall on its face again. Now is not the time for this.”

Johnson said the state should instead focus on repairing and filling vacant boat slips, which would produce rental income that could support harbor improvements.

Finley said in the years that redevelopment at the Ala Wai harbor has come before the Waikiki Neighborhood Board, what most of the community wanted were clean bathrooms, renovated slips, a functional fuel dock and haul-out facility, and a store where they could buy boating and living supplies.

“The glamorous stuff never really made sense,” Finley said.

Henski said DOBOR should get back to the basics.

“What they’ve done is despicable. People are abandoning what was once a beautiful marina,” Henski said. “I lived there in 1975, but I wouldn’t do that now. What a mess!”