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Editorials
Saturday, February 12, 2000Public input needed
in development planThe rejection of D.G. "Andy" Anderson's proposal for the redevelopment of the Kewalo Basin area of Kakaako has left Anderson fuming about politics wrecking a perfectly sound project and the public wondering what happens now.The issue: The rejection of D.G. "Andy" Anderson's proposal for the Kewalo Basin area raises the question of what the state should do with the area.
The Hawaii Community Development Authority turned down Anderson's amusement park-restaurants-and-retail-shops proposal on grounds that it lacked financial feasibility. The main public reaction was objection to the Ferris wheel Anderson included in the plan.
As Alex Achimore, an architect and urban planner, wrote in the Insight section of last Saturday's Star-Bulletin, it's time to go back to the drawing board in planning for the makai area of Kakaako.
It's important, Achimore says, to find out what the community wants. "Perhaps community input has been the missing ingredient in the search for the right development concepts," he said.
Achimore pointed to Granville Island in Vancouver, B.C., as an example of successful development of a comparable site.
Like the Kewalo Basin area, it's a former industrial site on landfill in the heart of the city and controlled by an authority that supersedes city government. The island contains a farmers' market, a marina, a boat repair yard, artists' studios, an art college, a performing arts center, restaurants, playgrounds, day care, a small hotel and a cement plant.
All of these uses might not be appropriate for Kewalo Basin, but some of them would be. The marina, of course, already exists.
The main point, however, is that Granville Island was developed "through a community visioning process led by design professionals but driven by the rank and file," Achimore said. He also noted that the area is public land and said it should not be used to develop "simply more of what we already have and/or can be built on nearby private lands."
A good start has been made on redevelopment of this strategically located area but there is much more to be done. The state has already built the Kakaako Waterfront Park and opened the Children's Discovery Center. Also envisioned is a world-class aquarium, but how long it will take to find the funding for that isn't known.
Despite the adverse reaction to Anderson's project, an imaginatively designed amusement park with good restaurants, something like the Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen, could be a valuable addition to the area.
However, there are too many shopping centers nearby to justify more retail establishments. High-tech centers and a health and wellness center have been rejected for the site but might deserve reconsideration.
As Achimore suggested, it might be necessary for the authority to revise the standard of financial feasibility for proposals in order to come up with something that will serve community needs. That needn't mean providing all facilities at public expense -- rather, being willing to settle for what tenants can afford to pay.
What is obvious is that the need to make decisions on the future of this area is pressing and that the community's views should be thoroughly considered. This is an area with great potential that is currently grossly underused.
It's also quite enough redevelopment for the state administration to be undertaking at this time. The state should forget about the ill-conceived idea of converting the Ala Wai Golf Course into a park that no one needs and focus on Kewalo Basin.
Nuclear waste
IN 1983 then-President Reagan signed into law a bill establishing a national plan for the disposal of highly radioactive nuclear waste. The measure set a timetable for establishing a permanent underground repository for the waste by the mid-1990s. In the meantime, it provided for temporary federal storage of waste, including spent fuel from civilian nuclear reactors.
Seventeen years later the disposal issue is still unresolved. The Senate voted this week to require that nuclear waste be shipped from power plants around the country to a site in Nevada as early as 2007 once a permanent repository is licensed.
But the measure, which has yet to be considered by the House, faces a certain veto by President Clinton. Opponents said they're confident of having enough votes to sustain such a veto.
Congress has struggled for years over what to do with the more than 40,000 tons of used reactor fuel that now sits at commercial power plants in 31 states. Proponents of the bill said the issue has been debated too long and that the waste would be safer if kept at a central location rather than at sites across the country.
But the White House and other opponents have argued that directing the wastes to be shipped to Nevada could undermine efforts to develop a permanent burial site at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles from Las Vegas.
The permanent facility being proposed for Yucca Mountain is still under scientific review after 20 years of study, but is scheduled to be opened in 2010 if it is found to be technically suitable and gets a license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
The nuclear power industry, faced with a growing accumulation of spent fuel at its plants, has pushed for action on a permanent repository for years. The program has been obstructed by the attempts of members of Congress to prevent the location of waste dumps in their districts.
No one is eager to have a nuclear waste repository in his neighborhood, but the Nevada desert site appears to be as good a choice as is likely to be found. After so many years of bickering and stalling, it's time to end this charade and get on with the movement of nuclear waste to the Yucca Mountain site.
Published by Liberty Newspapers Limited PartnershipRupert E. Phillips, CEO
John M. Flanagan, Editor & Publisher
David Shapiro, Managing Editor
Diane Yukihiro Chang, Senior Editor & Editorial Page Editor
Frank Bridgewater & Michael Rovner, Assistant Managing Editors
A.A. Smyser, Contributing Editor
