Community
effort on Koko
Head successful

Residents band together
and convince the mayor that
his cable-car plan for the
crater was off track

By Gordon Y.K. Pang
Star-Bulletin

Sometimes you can fight City Hall and win.

Even Mayor Jeremy Harris admitted strong opposition to parts of the proposed Koko Head Regional Park and Nature Preserve that led him to scrap the plan.

"We're pretty happy, community action did something," said Lisa Carter, a Hawaii Kai Neighborhood Board member, Ka Iwi Shoreline Action Council leader and organizer of the newly formed East Honolulu Community Coalition.

Gone is the idea of a cable car leading to a scenic lookout at the top of Koko Crater.

Also scrapped was a proposal to close the existing Hanauma Bay parking lot and have visitors park at Koko Head and catch a shuttle.

Harris yesterday said the city still plans to proceed with a marine learning center at Hanauma Bay Nature Preserve, as well as improve landscaping and erosion control there.

Those segments met with no criticism.

The city allocated $13 million to implement the plan, which would have grouped Koko Head, Hanauma Bay, Halona Blow Hole and other recreational sites in the region into a single 1,234-acre complex.

Harris met with community leaders on Saturday, and again yesterday.

"I'm convinced that we need additional community input to come back with a plan that truly reflects the concerns of the community," the mayor said.

Harris wants a new plan by next March so construction money can be earmarked in the 2001 budget.

"The problem was that many interests in the community are involved in a proposal as large as this," said Dick Baker, president of the nonprofit Friends of Hanauma Bay.

"It was moving so fast that many of the interested groups simply did not learn about it at an early enough stage to have the kind of input to make sure that the plan took into account all of the interests and needs," Baker said.

Carter compared the cable car to something people would see at Disneyland.

"They said it was a really good view," she said. "The logic was outrageous."

Using Koko Head as a parking area for a shuttle to Hanauma was bothersome to area City Councilman John Henry Felix said.

"It would have been transferring traffic over to a district park that is heavily utilized."

Carter said while the number of visitors at Hanauma needs to be closely monitored, residents should be given more access to the underwater resource.

The plan would have forced everyone entering the bay to ride a tram down.