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A private vendor would be allowed to shuttle up to about 150 people daily to the Haiku Stairs for guided hiking tours under a plan proposed by Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell.
The plan is up for a vote before the City Council Economic Assistance and Revitalization Committee at its 1 p.m. meeting today in the form of Resolution 20-323.
At least one weary neighbor of the iconic but long-kapu Kaneohe trail is questioning the timing of the request, noting that Caldwell is slated to leave office Jan. 2, the day Mayor-elect Rick Blangiardi is sworn in.
Councilwoman-elect Esther Kiaaina, the Windward area’s incoming Council representative, is raising similar concerns.
But administration officials insist they just want to get the ball rolling and that they recognize a final decision on whether to move forward with a private operator will be up to their successors.
The fate of the trail, also known as the Stairway to Heaven, has been debated between Haiku Valley residents and hiking enthusiasts for decades.
Those who favor opening the World War II-era trail see it as a unique feature of the island that needs to be preserved for future generations not only for hiking, but for its historical and cultural values.
But opponents say that since the stairway was closed to the public in 1987, trespassers trying to reach the trailhead have ravaged the community’s residential properties and ruined the neighborhood. They want not only for the trail to stay closed, but for the steps to be dismantled to discourage future encroachments.
Caldwell has insisted that a managed-access compromise can be reached. That plan of action got a major boost in July when the semi-autonomous Honolulu Board of Water Supply, which had threatened to tear down the staircase, formally transferred the 3,922-step trail and 200 acres around it to the city Department of Parks and Recreation.
City Enterprise Services Director Guy Kaulukukui said the city wants a 12-year contract because it estimates it will take two years to refurbish and do other work in preparation for opening, “and then give them a 10-year period … for operations recognizing that the initial investment may be significant.”
A city estimate from a month ago put the cost of capital improvements at $950,000.
Kaulukukui said the vendor is being asked to shuttle visitors to the trail from an off-site gathering location, presumably from a commercial location in Kaneohe. The vendor is limited to allowing between 75 and 150 visitors a day, he said, assuming they will use a 10- to 15-passenger van, or what amounts to about 10 round trips.
The vendor will be required to cross through property owned by at least six different owners, Kaulukukui said. From an off-site location, the van will be asked to access the back of the valley through Kuneki Street and park at a site owned by private commercial landscaping company Hui Ku Maoli Ola, he said. Visitors would then proceed by foot through parcels owned by Kamehameha Schools, the state Department of Transportation, the Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corp. and the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, he said.
“We’re making very good progress with all of the landowners, and we expect to have all those agreements in place by the time the solicitation goes public,” Kaulukukui said. People will not leave the van until it moves past any residential areas, he said.
Kaulukukui stressed that the hikes will be guided and that no one will be allowed on the trail unescorted. Each hike will need to be accompanied by at least two guides, he said.
“There will not be a whole bunch of people roaming the neighborhoods trying to find the base of the hiking trail,” he said. Entry would need to be purchased in advance and off-site. The vendor would also need to provide 24-hour security, he said.
Area resident Jennifer Sabas said the main concern of residents is the access point. “We continue, every day, to have hikers walking through our neighborhoods,” she said.
Told of the plan described by Kaulukukui, Sabas expressed skepticism, noting that Kuneki is an important street utilized by residents. “This proposal comes right through our neighborhood.”
A better route might be through public property at or near Kaneohe District Park, “even up through the community college area rather than through a private neighborhood,” Sabas said. The park site also has existing parking and restrooms that could be used, she said.
Another concern is whether a company would be able to get enough liability insurance to shield city taxpayers from legal exposure, she said.
“It is disconcerting that they are rushing this at the last twilight of this administration,” Sabas said.
But city Deputy Managing Director Georgette Deemer said the city’s been working to put out a request for proposals since taking over ownership in the summer, noting that it has been a complicated process due to the different property owners city officials needed to deal with for access.
“We’ve actually been working hard on it all year long,” she said. “It’s pretty complicated in terms of the landownership issues, and I have to say it was slow going until we asked (Kaulukukui) to help spearhead this.”
Kaulukukui has been on leave with pay from the director’s job since April pending the outcome of a lawsuit filed against him by a woman who alleges that he sexually abused her when he was a teacher at Kamehameha Schools in the 1980s. City Deputy Managing Director Georgette Deemer said Kaulukukui is continuing to assist with the Haiku Stairs project due to his familiarity with the Department of Enterprise Services and the agency’s contracts, as well as his knowledge of state land agencies as a onetime deputy director of the state Department of Land and Natural Resources.
“We are hoping to get the bid out to the public before we leave, but it will be up to the next administration to award,” Deemer said.
Among the roughly 12 to 15 parties that submitted preliminary proposals earlier this year was the nonprofit Friends of Haiku Stairs, perhaps the most vocal of the groups supporting the trail’s reopening.
Dr. Vernon Ansdell, Friends of Haiku Stairs president, said the managed-access concept his group developed is in line with what’s being described in the RFP.
The Friends plan calls for about 80 visitors a day at the beginning of the operation.
“From our experience, the visitors would be willing to spend pretty substantial amounts of money to go up there, and for local people it would be a fairly small charge,” Ansdell said. “But we’d have to charge, unfortunately, because there’s no money coming from anywhere else, at least for now. And somebody has to pay for insurance, maintenance, education and those sort of things.”
Ansdell said his organization envisions charging up to $200 for out-of-towners and $20 for kamaaina, with free or discounted access in the form of scholarships for those willing to volunteer.
The group believes that with the use of volunteers, the initial repair costs can be closer to about $200,000, significantly less than the $950,000 projected by the city.
While Friends is intending to submit a proposal, the group is willing to make its conceptual plan public.
“We’re happy to say, ‘If somebody else can do as good a job as we think we can do, we’re happy to let them do it,’” Ansdell said.
Mayor-elect Blangiardi, asked his views on the Haiku Stairs, said he was consistent in his response on the issue when asked about it during the campaign.
“I told them if we could figure out how to effectively create a public-private partnership, that I was very much in favor of fixing the stairs and managing all the other elements that were of concern to local residents in affected communities,” Blangiardi said in a statement.
“The stairs represent a unique experience for kamaaina and visitors, and we should preserve the experience if possible,” he said.
Kiaaina, who will represent the Windward area come Jan. 2, said, however, that she shares Sabas’ view on the issue.
“Given the contentiousness of Haiku Stairs, I oppose any effort to authorize the city to move forward on an agreement related to the management of Haiku Stairs during the waning days of the current administration and City Council,” Kiaaina said in a statement.
“I share the concerns of the neighboring communities whose quality of life have been adversely impacted by the presence of Haiku Stairs and illegal trespassers,” said Kiaaina, who is familiar with the issue because until recently she was a land asset manager for Kamehameha Schools. “Why do the voices of impacted communities matter less than those who don’t live day in and day out with the challenges?”
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