Haiku Stairs’ removal advances at Honolulu City Council

A measure that would call for removal of the Haiku Stairs advanced Tuesday at the Honolulu City Council.

The stairs have been hotly debated for years, with nearby residents upset by traffic and other disturbances, and hikers hoping for legal access to the Stairway to Heaven.

The World War II-era trail up the steep cliffs above Kaneohe was closed to the public in 1987, but trespassers continue to find ways to reach the stairs and hike them.

Councilwoman Esther Kiaaina introduced a resolution to allow for more public discourse on the subject after many people testified about the removal of Haiku Stairs during the budgeting process earlier this year.

“I felt that given the strong passion on both sides of the issue, as well as its contentiousness, that we needed to ensure that we provided an avenue … to allow for City Council members to hear from both sides, to hear from the administration, to hear from advocates on both sides, to hear from the abutting landowners,” she said.

Kiaaina was able to secure $1 million in the city’s budget for the removal of the stairs. However, it will ultimately be up to Mayor Rick Blangiardi to release the funds for the stairs’ removal.

Kaneohe state Rep. Scot Matayoshi testified at the hearing advocating for removal. He said he conducted a door-to-door survey on the issue, and 93% of people in the area who responded wanted the trail relocated.

Matayoshi said he wants the Council to give more weight to the opinions of people living near the trail than the opinions of “those that just want to come and visit our islands and climb the trail.”

“It was never meant for massive amounts of tourists to be using this trail,” he said. “There’s no parking. It’s located right in the middle of a community, with no legal access.”

He did suggest that a possible compromise could be a third party purchasing the metal staircase, moving it away from residential areas and allowing a private company to handle tours, liability and emergency rescues.

Vernon Ansdell, president of the Friends of Haiku Stairs, a nonprofit group dedicated to preserving the trail, listed the group’s plan for managed access to the stairs, which would not require the city to remove the structure.

“Friends of Haiku Stairs has such a plan that has been developed over decades by experts in their field, such as engineers, educators, hikers, rescue workers, medical personnel and business people,” he said.

The highlights of the group’s plan include security personnel installing security cameras and limiting the trail to 80 hikers a day. The group would shuttle the hikers from an office location in Kaneohe to the trailhead on a route that avoids the neighborhood area. A vendor would run the operation, but Friends of Haiku Stairs would be an advisory group.

However, Kiaaina pointed out that there would need to be an agreement with abutting landowners, which hasn’t been reached in 30 years.

Portions of the trail are on land owned by the state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands. The department is concerned about potential liability resulting from hikers on the stairs. The department testified in support of removal. DHHL Deputy Director Tyler Gomes said the department is willing to enter an agreement with the city to dispose of the stairs.

Kiaaina’s resolution passed unanimously out of the Housing and the Economy Committee to be heard by the full Council. Councilwoman Andria Tupola voted yes, with reservations, emphasizing the need to attempt to find an in-between to allow some type of legal access to the stairs.

“In the event that there’s a portion that we can manage, or that management can be suggested, I personally feel like my approach is, I don’t believe we should restrict access,” Tupola said.

“Because like every other Native Hawaiian, we want access to our mountains or oceans to our beaches. And so I believe there’s a middle ground here.”

The next full City Council meeting is Aug. 11.