A recently approved dog park for Kaiaka Bay Beach Park in Haleiwa has prompted residents to protest placing the activity in what they say is an ancient Hawaiian heiau complex.

City officials say the site is not near a heiau complex.

Mälama Kia Äina o Haleiwa, made up of North Shore residents from various cultural, civic and professional organizations, said it will take its concerns to the North Shore Neighborhood Board meeting at 7 tonight at the John Kalili Surf Center, 66-167 Haleiwa Road.

Group spokeswoman Malia Evans said she was shocked to learn last month that the board voted to support the proposal and the North Shore Woof Pack selected the site without learning more about its historical background. The Woof Pack is a nonprofit organization that was established in July to support the creation of a dog park at Kaiaka Bay Beach Park, according to its Web site.

The site is well documented in literature, Hawaiian stories and missionary accounts, said Evans, a University of Hawaii graduate student in applied archaeology. While there are no remnant structures on the site, a limestone feature remains, she said. She said that apparently no Native Hawaiian consultant was contacted.

"Dog parks are part of this whole system of gentrification, where settlers from outside are coming into our communities and putting in their Starbucks and this whole development scene," Evans said. "Dog parks are part of that ... it's just a symptom of what's going on in our communities as Hawaiian cultural values and lifestyle are being replaced by foreign perspective."

Evans said members of her group met with three women from Woof Pack but they deferred to the city, saying the decision was now up to city officials.

The North Shore Woof Pack declined to comment for this story, saying the project is in the city's hands.

City spokesman Bill Brennan said the group is mistaken.

"My understanding is the dog park is nowhere near the heiau," Brennan said.

Lester Chang, director of the city Department of Parks and Recreation, told the group in a Sept. 29 letter to take its concerns to the North Shore Neighborhood Board "to provide your organization and others with an opportunity to share your concerns about the proposed dog park at Kaiaka Bay Beach Park, as well as your recommendations."

The board will give the group a chance to speak but not about the dog park, said Mike Lyons, chairman of the Neighborhood Board. Citing the open-meetings law, Lyons said the issue can't be discussed without prior notification.

The group will be allowed to speak about the various cultural sites in the community, including ones at Kaiaka Bay Beach Park, but not about the dog park, Lyons said.

"I said if you bring it up, I'll stop it," he said.

The board discussed the dog park at three meetings before a final vote to support the dog park in concept, Lyons said. The Woof Pack people changed the plan three times to accommodate concerns about the proximity of the park to homes, the highway and the school, he said. Only one board member voted against the proposal in a 10-1-1 vote in February.

Lyons said from all of the people he's spoken to, he does not believe that the heiau is in the park.

"The heiau is on, I believe, Dole or Gilman land," he said. "The sugar company actually piled all its rubbish on it, and when it closed up, they cleared the property and the heiau was destroyed."