Lingle backs Kakaako residential development Gov. Linda Lingle came out solidly in support of residential development in Kakaako in a speech yesterday to the Kakaako Improvement Association.
The area will need community
support for businesses there, she saysBy Russ Lynch
rlynch@starbulletin.com
She wants residential development in the area because the success of business, education and other activities there will depend on community support, she said.
Lingle also repeated a commitment to do what she can to get authority over the Aloha Tower Marketplace complex transferred to the agency that oversees state land in Kakaako, the Hawaii Community Development Authority.
Aloha Tower Development Corp., another state agency, oversees Aloha Tower as part of its responsibility for the waterfront area starting with Pier 5 near the Coast Guard station and stretching to Pier 23, past downtown Honolulu's financial district. The Aloha Tower complex is adjacent to the HCDA area, which runs from Ward Avenue to Pier 3.
HCDA has shown superior management and achievement in the work it has done so far, Lingle said. Kakaako and the waterfront area "should be developed together, should be looked at in a broader way," she said.
"I think (Aloha Tower) has been allowed to languish for a long time," Lingle said at the association's annual luncheon at Dave and Buster's restaurant. The Aloha Tower Development Corp.'s board of directors is undergoing a reorganization. Nearly half of its members are newly appointed state department heads who have yet to attend a meeting.
The HCDA's broad plans, many of which need to be finalized, include the new medical school, science-related businesses surrounding it, ocean-related businesses and shops.
Jan Yokota, HCDA executive director, said her agency supports a bill now in the Legislature that would transfer the Aloha Tower Marketplace to HCDA.
HCDA hopes to start development this year of 160 acres of land makai of Ala Moana, around the medical school, and has been looking at several plans, including one that calls for 300 to 400 homes in the makai area for middle-income residents.
Yokota said residential development is not allowed on the makai parcel but she expects HCDA will go through a hearing process in a few months to get a land-use change. Suggested designs also call for much more residential development on land makai of Ala Moana that is controlled by HCDA.
Lingle said she is aware of the need for preservation of surf spots, open space and parks but there are also needs for "an expanded and diversifying economy."
She joked that "the bad news is, I don't have a vision for Kakaako; the good news is, I don't have a vision for Kakaako."
Hawaii Community Development Authority
Office of the Governor