Posted on: Wednesday, December 31, 2003
Sierra Club urges bikeway, recycling
Advertiser Staff
A dedicated bikeway through urban Honolulu and curbside recycling across the island top the Sierra Club's wish list of city improvements in 2004.
The Sierra Club, O'ahu Group, offered Mayor Jeremy Harris and the Honolulu City Council five New Year's resolutions yesterday to enforce environmental laws, pass new environmental policy and provide money for alternative transportation projects.
"The Sierra Club wants Honolulu to clean up, slim down and improve circulation," said Kathy Harter, political chairwoman for the club.
Topping the resolution list is money for the Young Street Bikeway, which would dedicate lanes to bicycles through a 1.7-mile segment between Isenberg Street and Thomas Square. During budget deliberations last spring, the City Council cut Harris' proposal to provide money for the first phase of $14 million project.
The Sierra Club also is pushing for an islandwide curbside recycling program to reduce the volume of trash going into the landfill. "As landfill siting issues grow more contentious and put community against community, methods to reduce the amount of waste needed to be landfilled grow more attractive," Harter said.
The city is halfway through a four-month pilot curbside recycling program in Mililani that will be used as the basis for an islandwide proposal expected to be given to the City Council in March. The club suggests trying to get Honolulu's recycling rate —now 30 percent — closer to that of cities like Portland, Ore., where almost 60 percent of the trash is recycled.
According to Harter, "increasing the recycling rate will not only reduce the need for future landfill expansion, it will provide jobs in the recycling sector and increase the sustainability of our resources."
As traffic problems intensify and open space vanishes, the club also wants the city to create urban growth boundaries, noting the city in 2002 amended the Central O'ahu development plan to allow for 20,000 homes to be built on agricultural lands, including Castle & Cooke's residential development at Koa Ridge.
"Instead of allowing more urban sprawl to pave over open space and prime agricultural lands, our elected leaders should revisit the General Plan (for development) and create true urban growth boundaries to direct development to currently urbanized areas and the second city of Kapolei," Harter said.
The fourth resolution is to enforce grading permits to protect coastal waters from muddy runoff, which can ruin reef ecosystems.The club said noncompliance with the grading permits should lead to heavy fines and possibly revoking the permit.
Finally, the Sierra wants the city to create a solar bond program to finance clean energy for city buildings. San Francisco voters approved a $100 million solar revenue bond that was used to pay for solar panels, wind turbines and energy-efficient upgrades for public buildings. The same could be done here, Harter suggests.
