Remap panel agrees to offer alternative Leeward maps
| • | Map: Honolulu redestricting proposal |
By Robbie Dingeman
Advertiser City Hall Writer
Leeward residents yesterday told the city Reapportionment Commission they don't want Makakilo split into a separate City Council district from Kapolei when the island is subdivided politically this year.
The commission is in charge of dividing the island into nine council districts, each with roughly 92,000 residents. The City Charter requires the redistricting every 10 years based on new U.S. Census data.
Commissioner Annette Yamaguchi, chairwoman of the Waipahu Neighborhood Board, said she had first proposed making the H-1 Freeway the new boundary splitting Makakilo from Kapolei but has heard resoundingly from the community that it would be a bad idea. Kapolei would be in the Wai'anae district and Makakilo with Waipahu.
In a commission meeting at City Hall, longtime Makakilo community activist Maeda Timson yesterday testified against breaking the community from Kapolei. "You've made a very bad mistake," she said.
Yamaguchi encouraged the commission to draft a second proposal that would put Makakilo with Kapolei. To do that will mean splitting a portion of the 'Ewa Plain, which likely will draw protest from other residents.
After some debate, commissioners agreed to send out two maps for public discussion. One splits Makakilo from Kapolei, the other does not.
Vicki Gaynor, assistant vice president of Haseko (Hawai'i) Inc., warned that the new map may result in making Fort Weaver Road a dividing line, placing 'Ewa people from one side of the street in one council member's district, while those across the way would vote for another.
Commission Chairman Kerry Komatsubara said he doesn't want to see the drawing of the maps turn into "a popularity contest," where the loudest community wins. Some residents are going to be unhappy, he said.
Because Kapolei and Mililani have seen some of O'ahu's biggest population increases, those district boundaries are being redrawn. Some residents of Mililani are protesting the commission's recommendation to put Mililani Mauka in the separate North Shore district rather than keeping it in the Central O'ahu district.
John Steelquist, chairman of the Makiki/Lower Punchbowl/ Tantalus Neighborhood Board, asked why the commission would wrap the Waikiki area in with Hawai'i Kai and then allow the western end of the district to stretch to Ala Moana Center.
Public hearings on the proposals are planned for 7 p.m. Oct. 22 at Waipahu District Park, and 7 p.m. Oct. 25 at Castle High School in Kane'ohe.
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