Courtesy City & County of Honolulu
A new logo accompanies the program.

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Mayor unveils
his vision for
Honolulu

Harris hopes to reduce
urban sprawl by limiting growth
in population and development to
greater Honolulu and Kapolei

By Gordon Y.K. Pang
Star-Bulletin

Mayor Jeremy Harris today unveiled a sweeping "vision" for Honolulu and called on residents to help create a shared agenda to take the island into the 21st century.

In what officials termed a joint state-city effort, Gov. Ben Cayetano joined Harris at this morning's news conference to discuss the vision, which entails heavy advertising and a big schedule of meetings for the months ahead.

This Saturday, hundreds of "community stakeholders" will gather for a "vision workshop" at Kapiolani Community College to kick off the program dubbed "21st Century Oahu -- A Shared Vision for the Future."

Everything involving land use -- from development plans to empowerment zones to water resource goals to bikeway master plans -- will come under one vision, created by a consensus of the community.

"It's important that everyone understand that our vision is a work in progress," Harris said. "Nothing is cast in stone. We want to generate a new intensity of community involvement."

Harris first outlined his vision in his State of the City address in January.

He hopes to reduce urban sprawl by limiting growth in population and development to greater Honolulu -- from Hawaii Kai to Pearl City, or what's defined as the primary urban core -- and the second city of Kapolei.

Development in other areas, including Mililani and the rest of Central Oahu, will largely be curtailed in an effort to "keep the country country," Harris said.

Harris has a dream of creating a light-rail trolley system that would run from Moiliili to Aiea, believing that such a system would make Honolulu a more transit-friendly city.

He also thinks it would stimulate the economy in the areas around the line.

Limiting growth to the two regions would mean a lesser need for a rail line to areas outside the primary urban core.

Cayetano, who has strongly opposed previous transit projects, has given initial support to Harris' proposal.

Zip lanes, high-occupancy vehicle lanes, dedicated bus ways and expanded express and standard-route buses would take care of the load, Harris has stated.

The Harris vision also focuses on revitalizing neighborhoods.

In each neighborhood, Harris wants to create "a pedestrian-friendly environment with parks and open space, landscaping and safe walkways and bikeways."

Oahu residents will be encouraged to develop neighborhood plans such as a college town plan for the area surrounding the University of Hawaii at Manoa campus; a Kalihi town plan centered around the Honolulu Community College and Kapalama Canal; and mixed-use plans for other, older neighborhoods such as Kaimuki, Kapahulu and Moiliili.

Harris' ideas also include a drive to revitalize the Honolulu waterfront as has been done in Portland, Boston and other major mainland cities.

There will be 19 "community vision teams" that will meet throughout at least the next 12 months.

This Saturday, the community leaders will be shown a half-hour video featuring the city's vision and then break into their teams to begin creating ideas for their own neighborhoods.

Harris emphasized that the state will play a key role in the planning.

"Over the past year, we have been working with the state government on many of these ideas," Harris said. "In fact, we cannot implement our vision for Oahu without the state's support."

The mayor said the state is already at the lead in some areas being discussed, such as revitalization of the waterfront and development of Kapolei.