By Mike Leidemann
Advertiser Staff Writer
Doing good urban planning is like wrapping your arms around a 600-pound Jello mold: squeeze one place and it pops out in another.
Protect the environment and you stifle business. Help Kapolei and you threaten Kaimuki. Add more bus lanes and you anger car drivers. Make cars move faster and you aggravate pedestrians. Encourage high-rises and you’re accused of urban blight. Support low-rises and they say you’re adding to suburban sprawl.
It’s not like we don’t have plenty of people trying to plan a better Hawai‘i. We’ve got federal, state and county planners. We’ve got special district planners. We’ve got government, business, nonprofit and environmental planners.
The problem, says the state’s head planner, is that too often they’re not on the same page. Sometimes, they’re not even reading the same book.
"We know the system is dysfunctional sometimes, but there’s no consensus on which way to move," said David Blane, head of the State Planning Office.
That’s why Blane and other top planners are lending their support to a bill making its way through the state Legislature that would establish a new advisory council to coordinate all planning here.
Now before you say, "Great. Just what we need, another government committee," consider this: The group’s work would be modeled on a new kind of planning that’s gaining support across the country.
It’s called Smart Growth, and if ever there’s a concept whose time has come in Hawai‘i, this is it. Smart Growth promotes strategies that are environmentally sound, economically viable and encourage livable, human-scale communities. It emphasizes coordination of all social and physical elements that make up our homes, neighborhoods, Islands and state.
Smart Growth works on hundreds of levels. Paying people to live near where they work. Revitalizing old neighborhoods. Making new developments more livable. Encouraging arts and historic preservation. Building parks and bikeways. Coordinating state, county and private projects (no more tearing up Kalaniana‘ole Highway again!).
Pretty simple to say, but hard to practice, especially in Hawai‘i with all its entrenched bureaucracies and powers. The question is: Who is going to make sure all these things get done?
That’s where the new council comes in. Blane sees the group as a cross-section of the state’s best critical thinkers, people who can stand up to all the scattered constituencies and do what’s best for the state. He thinks they will be people who can look out for the little guy and still see the big picture.
What a concept. Smart Growth. Think about it.
Mike Leidemann can be reached by phone (525-5460) or e-mail (mleidemann@honoluluadvertiser.com).
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