Haiku Stairs access plan advances but is still being debated

Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s plan to have a private vendor provide a “managed access” hiking tour operation at Kane­ohe’s iconic Haiku Stairs won tentative approval Monday from the City Council Economic Assistance and Revitalization Committee.

But while Resolution 20-323 will be up for a final vote of the full Council Wednesday, Council Chairwoman Ann Kobayashi said an action is premature and that she will suggest to her colleagues that a decision be postponed.

“I don’t know why the (Caldwell) administration is pushing this so much,” Koba­yashi told the Honolulu Star-­Advertiser on Monday after­noon, noting that there continue to be unresolved issues about the proposal. “We’ve been dealing with this situation since Jeremy Harris,” she said, referencing Honolulu’s mayor from 1994 to 2004.

With their elected terms running out at the end of the year, Wednesday’s meeting is scheduled to be the last full Council meeting for Kobayashi and four of her eight Council colleagues.

The Haiku Stairs plan calls for a 12-year contract with a vendor that would be allowed to shuttle up to about 150 visitors a day from off-site into the valley for guided hiking tours.

It’s because the contract is proposed to be 12 years that Council approval is necessary. Enterprise Services Director Guy Kaulukukui said if the Council rejects the plan Wednesday, he will recommend to the mayor that the city proceed with a bid for a five-year contract to speed up the process.

Kobayashi said she agrees with residents in the neighborhood bothered by the plan’s proposal for vans to move through Kuneki Street and drop off hikers on a parcel owned by landscaping company Hui Ku Maoli Ola. The hikers would then need to walk through five other government or privately owned properties before reaching the trailhead.

“That hasn’t been settled,” Kobayashi said. While city officials tried to assure Council members Monday that the plan would not result in the city incurring any costs, Kobayashi said she’s skeptical.

Councilman Alan Texeira, who represents the Windward region and chaired Monday’s committee meeting, threw his support behind the Caldwell plan. “This is the closest we’ve gotten to a mutual accord,” Texeira told committee members.

City officials said they just want to get the ball moving on the project and stressed that a decision to advance the plan would need to be made by Mayor-elect Rick Blangiardi and his team.

Blangiardi will be sworn in Jan. 2.

Blangiardi told the Star-­Advertiser that he supports the concept of a managed-­access plan, while Councilwoman-elect Esther Kiaaina said does not want the current Council to vote on the plan.

The fate of the popular but illegal trail, also known as the Stairway to Heaven, has been debated between Haiku Valley residents and hiking enthusiasts for decades.

Built as part of a military installation during the 1940s, the stairway was closed to the public in 1987.