Posted on: Friday, December 13, 2002
Judge rules out parking garage at Irwin Park
By David Waite
Advertiser Courts Writer
Irwin Park cannot be converted into a multi-level garage to resolve parking problems at the Aloha Tower Marketplace, Circuit Judge Gary Chang ruled yesterday.
The 22,000-square-foot parcel just mauka of Aloha Tower was given to the Territory of Hawai'i in 1930 by Helene Irwin Fagan in memory of her father, sugar magnate William Irwin. Fagan included a provision that the property be used only as a park in perpetuity.
In a 1952 letter, Fagan lifted the restriction to allow Nimitz Highway to be built over a portion of the park.
In an oral ruling yesterday, Chang interpreted the 50-year-old letter to mean that Fagan was rescinding the restrictive deed covenants only to allow the highway to be built on a portion of the park, and that she never intended to remove the restriction from the rest of the parcel.
The owners of The Aloha Tower Marketplace, Aloha Tower LP and AHI Aloha LP, had hoped to build a multi-level parking garage at the site, which for years has been a tree-lined parking lot that serves the marketplace.
Officials of the two private companies and the state's Aloha Tower Development Corp. could not be reached last night to comment on Chang's ruling.
Five preservation groups — Scenic Hawaii, The Outdoor Circle, Hawaii's Thousand Friends, Life of the Land and Historic Hawaii — joined with Fagan's heirs, the William G. Irwin Charity Foundation, and the city to challenge the state's claim that Fagan waived the restriction that the property be forever used as a public park.
Chang disagreed with Aloha Tower Development Corporation's claim that Fagan nullified the deed restriction before her death.
John Whalen, a Scenic Hawaii director, hailed Chang's decision as a victory for preservation in the face of development pressure.
Mary Steiner, chief executive of The Outdoor Circle, called Chang's decision "a really important ruling."
"If he had ruled against us, it would have had a tremendously chilling effect on future gifts of land to the city or the state," Steiner said.
