February 2000 Home   Newsletters

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May 2000

Annual Meeting 2000
Vote Count (Arlene Ellis)
President's Message (Grace Furukawa)
Saunders Biography Event
Welcome New Members
Correction: Nominating Committee Report
Primary Urban Development Plan (Michelle Matson)
Trans 2K Update (Jackie Parnell)
Kapiolani Park Bandstand Redevelopment Project (Michelle Matson)
League Member Honored

Kapiolani Park Bandstand Redevelopment Project

The City has proceeded to carve out an artificial lagoon within the historic landscape of Kapiolani Park adjacent to the new Kapiolani Park bandstand construction site. This "pond" water feature with an "island" in the center is the size of three house lots. The city administration has refused to provide an Environmental Assessment for the project, which trisects the Ironwood Promenade, an historic landscape feature leading from Kalakaua Avenue to the King's Carriageway adjacent to the bandstand. The State Office of Environmental Quality Control has testified before the Kapiolani Park Trustees (aka the City Council) that an Environmental Assessment is required in accordance with the environmental review process mandated by Chapter 343, Hawaii Revised Statutes.

Further, the cost of constructing and maintaining this artificial feature remains undefined by the City administration. The City administration has also continuously refused to provide final plans for the project to concerned community groups. Correspondence containing detailed questions and concerns as stated by the Diamond Head/Kapahulu/St. Louis Heights Neighborhood Board and the Kapiolani Park Advisory Council has remained unanswered since December 1999. Significant, unavoidable questions from the Kapiolani Park Trustees pertaining to the legality and costs of this project have also remained unanswered by the City administration.

The Trustees had the right to halt the project, but have not done so to date. It is to the detriment of the people of Honolulu, as named beneficiaries of the Kapiolani Park Trust, to be deprived of thousands of square feet of usable park land merely for the purpose of a decorative water feature whose impact and costs remain undisclosed.

Michelle Matson

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