Logic of triangle park plan questioned
By Robbie Dingeman
Advertiser City Hall Writer
City Council members yesterday questioned why Mayor Jeremy Harris wants to spend $1.5 million to redevelop a 1-acre parcel across from the Hawai'i Convention Center even though the city does not control the land.
The triangular lot is at the high-visibility corner of Kalakaua Avenue and Kapi'olani Boulevard. Businesses there include a strip club and a surf shop.
The latest proposal by Harris, contained in a city budget under council review, suggests such replacements as a landscaped plaza with a water feature and a memorial to victims of the Ehime Maru collision at sea and/or the Sept. 11 attacks.
A move last year to acquire the land via condemnation ran into opposition from the affected business owners and landowners and from the council. City Managing Director Ben Lee last year assured the council that the city would try to work with landowners to see if the area could be redeveloped.
Last year, Harris put $6 million in the city budget to replace the existing buildings with scenic landscaping and a low-rise development.
This year, Harris put $1.5 million in the budget, most of it earmarked for construction money, with only $10,000 set aside to purchase the land.
City Council Budget Chairwoman Ann Kobayashi said it's one proposal that she'll consider eliminating from the budget in an attempt to keep costs down and concentrate on core services.
"They haven't even acquired the land," Kobayashi said. "We can't keep increasing our debt. We're going to have to look at where we can cut."
Councilman Duke Bainum said construction money shouldn't be set aside when the city hasn't purchased the land. "That's putting the park before the horse."
City spokeswoman Carol Costa said the administration is working with landowners there but she refused to describe any of the negotiations.
The council is also taking a close look at park expenses in the budget after hearing earlier this week that the city has failed to find private entities to operate various parks and recreation complexes.
Kobayashi said she would seriously consider Councilman Gary Okino's proposal for a moratorium on new swimming pools. The Makiki pool, which opened in November, was the first pool built by the city in 22 years.
Okino said he understands why new pools are in the budget for Kahuku, Koko Head, Lanakila and Wai'anae, but is uncertain if the city can afford them now. "They are nice-to-have kinds of things."
City Parks Director Bill Balfour said pools can cost about $8 million to build, plus maintenance costs. Okino estimated that operation of a pool could cost the city as much as $250,000 each year.
Balfour declined to say how much it would cost to maintain the city's Central O'ahu Regional Park, 100 acres of which opened last year. The administration is requesting $16.1 million more to build an aquatic center, community ballroom dancing center, tennis complex and box-car racing area, and additional money to complete the 269-acre master plan.
Council members say they're worried about the mounting costs of building and maintaining such ambitious complexes. "We don't want to put in something that we cannot maintain," Kobayashi said, especially after learning that the city has not found a private partner to run the Waipi'o Peninsula Soccer Park in Waipahu.
Balfour said the city is footing the bill for an estimated $750,000 in annual expenses related to the maintenance of the 288-acre soccer park, which opened in September 2000.
Bainum said he's concerned that the city appears to be budgeting token amounts of money for such projects as curb ramps for the disabled and roadwork, while projecting much bigger amounts for the years after Harris leaves office.
Reach Robbie Dingeman at rdingeman@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8070.
