Waimanalo residents worry over canoe halau
By Suzanne Roig
Advertiser East Honolulu Bureau
HAWAI'I KAI — The city has chosen a bad location for a canoe halau planned for Kaiona Beach Park in Waimanalo, residents said yesterday.
Under the city's plan, the building would be in the middle of the beach park that residents use every weekend for family picnics, camping and reunions.
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The city Department of Planning and Permitting will continued the hearing at 10 a.m. today at the Waimanalo Public and School Library at 41-1320 Kalaniana'ole Highway. For more information, call 527-5754.
Instead, the city should put the building at Waimanalo Beach Park, the residents said.
"It's about time we have a halau for our canoe paddlers," said Andy Aragon, a Waimanalo resident. "The only problem is the location. It is at a calm-water area. I'm not opposed to canoe paddlers; it's just that it's dangerous for the kids," he said, because it would mix canoes with children swimming.
Aragon and about 14 other residents from Waimanalo attended a public hearing on the halau at the Hawai'i Kai Library. The city Department of Planning and Permitting, which is reviewing the permit needed to build the halau, held the meeting there because it didn't know of a meeting space in Waimanalo.
On Friday, the decision was made to keep the meeting in Hawai'i Kai, but continue it today at the library meeting facility in Waimanalo.
"We weren't aware of any meeting space in the area," said Jamie Peirson, a city planner. "This ... was the closest place we could find."
After the public hearing closes today, the department has 10 days to make a recommendation to the City Council, which has final say over granting the special management area use permit.
The project, estimated to cost about $500,000, calls for a storage facility, driveway and walkway at Kaiona Park, a 34-acre site on Kalaniana'ole Highway between Waimanalo Beach Park and Kaupo Beach Park. The halau, which would be 24 feet high and 64 feet long, is supposed to serve as a permanent storage facility for canoes, kayaks and related equipment, as well as an informal gathering place for paddlers.
Peter Moses, a grandfather of 20, said the area where the halau is proposed to be built is a popular place for young children to learn to swim.
"The sand slopes out," Moses said. "There's no other area like this in Waimanalo. I don't see how you can replace babies with canoes."
