Waahila power line
critics win off-isle ally
A preservation trust calls a plan
By Star-Bulletin staff
to put towers on the ridge
'short-sighted'The National Trust for Historic Preservation today named Waahila Ridge, the possible site of an electric power-line project, one of the country's 11 most endangered historic places. While the annual listing has no regulatory or funding impact, the trust hopes inclusion will help preserve the balance between the ridge's natural environment and the "historic neighborhoods" of Manoa, St. Louis Heights and Palolo.
It also should serve as an example for other communities affected by transmission towers or similar hardware that visually clutters the landscape, the trust said.
"Every community has something that makes it unique and special, and in these historic Honolulu neighborhoods, it's the historic landscape," said Richard Moe, president of the Washington, D.C.-based organization.
"Placing 100-foot-tall steel towers along one of its highest and most visible ridges seems short-sighted and a waste of one of the island's most precious resources -- the natural beauty."
The ultimate cost could be lost tourist dollars and a diminished quality of life for residents, according to the group.
Hawaiian Electric Co. has said it is studying the ridge as one of several possible routes to link its Kamoku substation in Iolani Court Plaza with the Pukele substation in the back of Palolo Valley.
The utility says the 138,000-volt line project is needed to meet Honolulu's growth, but residents and advocacy groups objecting to it have cited ruined views, health concerns and lowered property values.
Waahila Ridge was nominated by a coalition of individuals and groups, including the Safe Power Action Network, an umbrella organization formed to fight the project. It includes the Outdoor Circle and Life of the Land.
Mary Steiner, the Outdoor Circle's chief executive officer, said the lines would be visible from Waikiki and Tantalus if allowed on one of the few remaining undeveloped ridges in urban Honolulu.
"We're hoping that the 270,000 members of the trust can help us convince Hawaiian Electric that they should be looking at other alternatives," she said.
The trust received about 100 nominations this year, said national spokeswoman Carol Cunningham. They typically are accompanied by supporting materials, which are reviewed and investigated by the organization. Saving a place's character
The final selection is made by senior trust executives, who try to compile a representative sampling of the many threats to preservation, she said.
Waahila Ridge does not seem to have the obvious historic significance of others on the 1997 list -- such as the Ellis Island National Monument in New York -- but the impact of the power lines on Manoa was a prime consideration, said Courtney Damkroger, assistant director of the trust's western regional office in San Francisco.
"Manoa Valley is a historic community," she said. "Much of the valley is eligible for the National Register of Historic Places, so you're looking at a situation where the transmission lines could have a serious negative effect on the character of that community."
The trust has been issuing the list since 1988, and said it has been a powerful tool to raise awareness about threatened sites and rally support to save them.
Historic places to see,
while they're thereOther sites on the 1997 list of "America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places" are:
Ellis Island National Monument, New York.
On television
The sites will be featured in the one-hour documentary "America's Most Endangered" at 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. today on the History Channel, Oceanic Cable Channel 70.
