Residents fear tour buses, fees if Ka Iwi developed
| • | Map: The government's plan for the Ka Iwi area |
| • | Timeline: Planning for Ka Iwi's future |
By Suzanne Roig
Advertiser East Honolulu Bureau
HAWAI'I KAI — For a dozen years, Dave Matthews will tell you, he has worked to keep the Ka Iwi shoreline open and untamed.
Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser
He and others were successful in keeping houses and hotels and golf courses off the last open stretch of coastline in urban Honolulu. But now the state is pushing a plan for improvements to the area that some feel could bring not only tour buses but also entry and parking fees.
The rugged beauty of the Ka Iwi shoreline is breathtaking to motorists traveling on Kalaniana'ole Highway. Some who have fought to keep the area pristine fear the state wants to package it into another tourist commodity.
"I don't want to make it so easy for tour buses to drive right up to the (Makapu'u) lighthouse," Matthews said. "I'm concerned because the whole idea is to leave the area in open space, like Hawai'i once was."
The community has been determined to keep the area as open space, fighting various attempts at development for more than two decades. The 316-acre area with views of the Ka Iwi channel and Koko Head stretches from Makapu'u Beach to Sandy Beach. It is home to plants and wildlife such as naupaka plants, tidal pools, birds and the endangered Marsilea villosa, a plant shaped like a clover.
In 1998, Gov. Ben Cayetano announced an $11 million offer from the state to buy 305 acres comprising Queen's Beach and adjoining land from Kamehameha Schools, formerly Bishop Estate. "Acquiring Ka Iwi is important to the thousands of residents and visitors who enjoy this wilderness coast each year," Cayetano said at the time. "I remain committed to preserving the area in perpetuity as open space."
The announcement drew praise from a coalition of environmental and community groups that wanted to prevent a planned golf course. Ten days after the offer to buy the wind-swept piece of East O'ahu shoreline property was rejected, Cayetano announced condemnation action.
The state's current plan for improvements at Ka Iwi is the same one it put together four years ago. While the groups that fought to keep the land open and free of development weren't consulted on the plan, they did get a glimpse of it, said Lisa Carter, a member of the Ka Iwi Action Council.
"We were briefed on this years ago," Carter said. "We felt the plan was a little too much, but we didn't make suggestions at that time because we understood it's a long way off."
But the issue came up this week at the Hawai'i Kai Neighborhood Board, which voted 14-0 to not make any comments until it has had more time to study the proposal.
The state needs a special management area use permit from the city to build $4.7 million in improvements to the popular Makapu'u Lookout. Planned improvements include placing utility lines underground, redesigning the lookout, widening Kalaniana'ole Highway, building two parking lots, adding another lookout point for sightseers and landscaping with salt-tolerant, drought-resistant plants.
A final component of the first increment of the plan is to restore a portion of the King's Highway, a registered historic site that parallels the east side of the highway between the road and the lookout.
Written comments are being accepted by the city Department of Planning and Permitting, which will make a recommendation to the Planning Commission. The issue then will go to the City Council for ultimate approval, said Dan Quinn, acting state parks administrator for the state Department of Land and Natural Resources.
Both federal and state dollars will be used to finance the project, Quinn said.
"If you drive by there now, the bulk of the area will remain wide open," he said. "We have to address the people issue. There are trails there now, (and) many of them were made in very un-environmental ways."
The proposals will make it safer for hikers to get to the lookout, Quinn said.
Still pending before the courts are condemnation proceedings initiated by the state and city to take the land from Kamehameha Schools, which owns the 316 acres along the Ka Iwi Coast. The state has valued the land at more than $11 million, the trust at $80 million. Meanwhile the city is continuing its efforts to purchase 30 acres across from Sandy Beach from Kamehameha Schools.
Cayetano last year approved $1.4 million to put utility lines underground. That part of the project has been awarded to a contractor, Quinn said.
But Matthews fears that the changes will permanently change the area from the rugged, unspoiled stretch of coastline into a busy tourist destination.
"To open it up to development as a tourist destination, the second stop after Hanauma Bay, will lose the meaning of having it taken (by condemnation) in the first place," Matthews said. "It will be lost to the citizens of Honolulu and the Hawaiian community."
