Moanalua Gardens will start charging entrance fees to help offset maintenance and operational costs.

Fees take effect April 15.

Owner John Philip "JP" Damon said, "I do understand that it will come as a surprise to many because they’re just used to it (free entrance) but I’m hoping that the overall effect of it will not be a burden on our local visitors. I strive to maintain the gardens at its highest state for their benefit."

Annual maintenance costs for the 22-acre property were estimated at $600,000 when Damon acquired the gardens in 2007. Damon declined to share the current maintenance costs, saying only that they are considerably higher.

"I’m pleased with the way the gardens look and I take great pride in the fact that I think we maintain it as well as any park that is visited in the islands. It goes without saying it cost something to do that," he said in a telephone interview.

Damon has implemented measures such as renting out portions of the park to raise funds, but those efforts did not produce sufficient revenue. The gardens have been operating at a loss over the past seven years, he said.

"Plain and simple, it comes down to really a need," he said of the new entrance fees.

Since 2007, a licensing agreement with Hitachi Ltd. has paid the property owner $400,000 a year for 10 years to use the garden’s famous monkeypod tree in its advertising. The "Hitachi" tree is one of two exceptional monkeypod trees on the property.

Money from the company supports part of the maintenance costs. Damon said he will likely extend the agreement with the company.

Along with maintenance costs, entrance fees will also help cover operational and improvement costs for the property that include a parking lot that is frequented by 50,000-pound tour buses. Fees also will help support the ongoing restoration and renovation of historical structures such as the summer cottage built in the 1850s by Prince Lot Kapuaiwa, who later became King Kamehameha V.

Termites and weather have degraded the structure.

About 1,000 people visit the site daily, a majority of whom are visitors from Japan. On weekends even more head to the gardens: about 800 to 1,000 tourists and 150 to 200 residents.

Damon said he plans to waive park entrance fees several days out of the year. For instance, fees will not be imposed for the annual Prince Lot Hula Festival, the largest noncompetitive hula event in the state, held at the gardens since 1978. Board President Alexander "Alika" Jamile of the Moanalua Gardens Foundation, a separate entity that holds the festival at the event and provides educational and cultural programs for the state, declined to comment on the new entrance fees.

Damon also plans to implement a policy to waive fees for schools and their chaperones that hold lunch and other visitation programs at the gardens.

Damon of Kaimana Ventures Ltd. purchased the 22-acre property for $5.05 million. He is the great-grandson of Samuel Mills Damon, co-founder of First Hawaiian Bank. Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop willed the property to Samuel Mills Damon when she died in 1884. He was a close friend of Bishop and a business partner of her husband, Charles Reed Bishop.

State Rep. Aaron Ling Johanson (D, Fort Shafter-Moanalua Gardens-Aliamanu) said, "It’s a real gem, not just for our community but for the state, culturally, historically and recreationally."

Johanson, 35, who recalled fishing for tadpoles in a stream and family picnics at the gardens, said he hopes there will be some alternatives to help offset maintenance costs other than just the entrance fees.

The Damon family has been generous to the public and visitors, particularly those from Japan who visit the Hitachi tree, he said.

The county, state or private businesses could perhaps look into assisting the owner so that the public could continue to have free access, Johanson said.