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City defends ‘water feature’
at Kapiolani Park Bandstand

By Gordon Y.K. Pang
Star-Bulletin

The administration of Mayor Jeremy Harris says it's a lily pond. Opponents are calling it a lagoon.

The City Council will take a field trip to Waikiki tomorrow to get a better look at the "water feature" that is the focal point of the Kapiolani Park Bandstand Redevelopment Project.

Members of the Kapiolani Park Advisory Council and the Kapiolani Park Preservation Society say they're not happy with the pond and other aspects of the project.

They also think the administration should have done a formal environmental assessment of the project, which would have allowed the public to comment and make suggestions.

The administration, which tore down the old bandstand in late September, believes such a study wasn't necessary. The improvements are part of a master plan for which the Council approved a special management area use permit in 1983, administration officials say.

Michelle Matson of the Kapiolani Park Advisory Council said the pond was never part of that 1983 plan and represents a change significant enough to warrant new studies.

Matson and others say the pond could damage the park and lead to the destruction of surrounding ironwood trees that have existed for more than a century.

Genevieve Salmonson, executive director of the state Office of Environment Quality Control, backed Matson's view. Salmonson said her agency first found out about the project in August through media coverage and immediately urged the city to conduct an environment assessment.

Even if it were determined that no further studies would be needed, Salmonson said, the city should have complied with laws pertaining to public disclosure involving the use of public funds for projects.

Salmonson's agency, however, cannot force the city to conduct an environmental study and, in fact, the city has not responded to her request.

Deputy Corporation Counsel Jane Howell told Council members that the water feature "falls under the term of landscaping" as described in the 1983 plan. Thus, she said, the city's position is "perfectly defensible."

Art Challacombe, head of the Department of Planning and Permitting's Environmental Review Branch, said his agency did not feel further studies are necessary.