STATE OF THE CITY ADDRESS
Honolulu is in for major changes

The following are excerpts from yesterday's State of the City address by Mayor Jeremy Harris:

Last September, Honolulu awoke to news of an attack on an American city thousands of miles away. Reactions ranged from shock and grief to concern for the security of our nation, our city, and the safety of our loved ones.

Mayor Jeremy Harris delivers his State of the City address at City Hall. Richard Ambo • Honolulu Advertiser

Our Asia-Pacific region alone has 3.5 billion people, a number that will explode to 5 billion in the next 25 years. And half of them will live in cities. It is hard to comprehend what this means in terms of energy use, waste generation and depletion of natural resources.

We must begin living under a new paradigm. We must shift from a consumption/pollution-based model to a sustainable model where our resources and environment are not continually depleted and despoiled, but protected and sustained.

I believe Honolulu can be the model of a sustainable city for America, for the Asia-Pacific region, for the rest of the world.

The blueprint for our island's future has five key components: sustainable land-use planning, a commitment to protect our environment and natural resources, the rebuilding of our neighborhoods, the development of an integrated transportation system, and the creation of a stronger, more diversified sustainable economy.

Sustainable land-use planning

The key to any sustainable city is good land-use planning. To minimize infrastructure costs and the pollution and congestion from vehicles, our plan calls for curtailing urban sprawl and directing future growth to Kapolei.

It calls for preserving open space and agricultural land, and recapturing our coastal areas. In short, our blueprint keeps the country country.

The city is moving to preserve valuable open space. Along the Windward side, we will acquire 218 acres of He'eia Kea, and almost 900 acres surrounding Mount Olomana. And, on the North Shore we will consummate the purchase of the 1,875-acre Waimea Valley Park. These unique and culturally significant lands will be forever protected and held in trust for park use by the people of Hawai'i.

With the help of the Windward community, we'll acquire additional shoreline properties at Waiahole-Waikane, and open them up to provide dramatic panoramic vistas of the windward coast. And, along the Leeward shore, the two-mile stretch of the Ulehawa shoreline will be further improved and beautified.

To keep our island green and to make us more sustainable, we must also have a viable agricultural industry. Over the last 30 years, more than 70,000 acres of active farmland on this island have been lost, much of it to urbanization. Once urbanized, these prime agricultural lands are lost forever.

Concentrated land ownership and speculative land pricing have made it increasingly difficult for farmers to acquire affordable agricultural land.

Therefore, later today I will be releasing for community review a bill that will lock 87,000 acres of land into agricultural use in perpetuity.

Protecting our environment

In order to become a truly sustainable city, we have to be on the cutting edge of recycling technology and reduce the amount of waste we put in the landfill.

Therefore, I am proud to announce today the city's bold technological initiatives to dramatically increase our recycling efforts and reduce the amount of waste we send to the landfill by 80 percent.

First, we will increase the capacity of H-Power by 50 percent. That way solid waste that used to go to the landfill will be recycled or used to generate electricity.

Second, we'll build a municipal solid-waste-separation facility at the H-Power site. Today, thousands of tons of refuse are sent to the landfill instead of to H-Power because unrecyclable and incombustible materials are mixed in with the loads.

Third, the city will acquire seven additional acres of industrial land at the H-Power plant for the creation of a new recycling technology park. And we'll enter into public-private partnerships to develop cutting-edge alternatives for waste disposal.

The first project will be to develop the potential of plasma arc technology, which will allow us to process up to 50 tons of refuse each day. The plasma arc system will create hydrogen, the non-polluting fuel of the future, that will power vehicles and reduce our dependence on fossil fuels.

At the recycling park, we'll also work with the private sector to develop a plant to make building materials from municipal waste. Automobile components, treated lumber and other materials that used to clog our landfill will be recycled into usable building materials.

Sewage sludge from the wastewater treatment plant at Sand Island is also currently being dumped at the landfill. This will be stopped. I am happy to report that we have now awarded a contract to the private sector to build a facility to transform this sludge into a valuable soil amendment that will be sold.

Another sustainability initiative is under way at the Kailua Wastewater Treatment Plant. Co-generation will take the methane gas, a by-product of the treatment process, and create enough electricity to make the plant self-sufficient. That will save us $24,000 each month.

Next, we'll transfer the technology to Honouliuli, a plant more than twice Kailua's size.

Well soon be using bio-diesel, reprocessed cooking oil, to power city cars.

Restoring neighborhoods

Restoring neighborhoods and revitalizing them economically is important to our quality of life, and has emerged from the vision process as a critical component of our blueprint of sustainability for the future.

In 'Aiea, the old Sugar Mill will become the site of a new town center with places for people of all ages to gather. Hawai'i Kai will benefit from a major new recreational complex at Koko Head District Park, and Sunset Beach will develop a community center to serve as a gathering place for that neighborhood.

On the slopes of Punchbowl, portions of Dole Community Park will become a training site for Hawai'is Special Olympians.

At Waialua, the historic bandstand will be re-established to serve as a focal point for outdoor entertainment and large community gatherings.

Sustainable transportation

Less than four years ago, we set out to design a transportation system that would bring us into the next century.

The core of our islandwide transportation plan features a regional bus rapid-transit system coupled with state-of-the-art electric transit that will run from Kalihi to the University of Hawai'i and Waikiki.

This BRT-electric system will use nonpolluting vehicles that carry more people and make less noise. Our goal of having public transit carry 20 percent of commuter trips is well within reach, and we can do that without raising taxes.

In the coming budget, I'll provide for the electric transit system's first phase of construction from Iwilei to Waikiki. Our objective is to have the first section operational in three years or less.

Building sustainable economy

Our tourism industry is vital to our prosperity, but as we grow the industry, we need to ensure that the natural environment visitors come to see and the Hawaiian culture they come to experience are not diminished in the process.

In fact, we need to ensure that the development of our visitor industry actually enhances our environment and preserves our culture. Cultural programs will be expanded, as will the Rediscover O'ahu program that brings visitors and residents into communities around the island to support local businesses.

In the coming budget, we will propose a number of new initiatives in this vein. The first is the expansion and development of our botanical gardens, including improvements to Koko Head, Foster and Wahiawa botanical gardens, and the addition of Waimea Valley Gardens to our lei of green.

To draw economic activity to Kapolei and provide cultural activities for our families that live there, we will begin planning for a Leeward amphitheater. To attract visitors to the North Shore, design work will commence for a World Surfing Museum in Hale'iwa.

While tourism will always be an important component of our economy, I believe our true destiny is to be a center for knowledge-based industries in the Asia-Pacific region.

Our biennial Asia-Pacific Environmental Summit has helped establish Honolulu as a world leader in such fields as urban planning, architecture, engineering and environmental science. This year we'll open the Asia Pacific Urban Technology Institute in Kapolei, which will bring leaders from Asia to our city for technology training and jobs to our economy.

Keeping taxes low is also part of our economic revitalization strategy. In the coming year, real property tax payments will be $46 million lower than they were in 1994.

In the weeks ahead, I will again be urging the City Council to extend our seven-year real property tax holiday for all new construction, including residential.

And for the second year in a row, I will be advocating lowering the apartment/condominium rate as part of our three-year plan to bring it down to the low residential level.

Despite the fact that collective bargaining pay raises will increase by $24 million, in the coming budget, I will ask for no increases in real property tax rates in any category.

We can't afford to limit our horizons. Our destiny demands that we embrace new ideas, big dreams and high aspirations. Today, I call upon you to set aside fear of failure and uncertainty and imagine the greatness of our city's future.