Haiku Stairs Public access to the Haiku Stairs Trail is expected sometime in August, under an agreement finalized yesterday between the city and the state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands.
to reopen in August
The popular Kaneohe trail was
recently repaired for $875,000By Diana Leone
dleone@starbulletin.com
> Known as the "Stairway to Heaven," the recently repaired 3,922-step climb to the top of a Koolau mountain ridge gives a stunning 360-degree view of much of the island of Oahu.
FL MORRIS / FMORRIS@STARBULLETIN.COM
Despite a guard at the gate blocking access to the Haiku Stairs in Kaneohe, hikers found a way in on July 6 to make the climb.
The city paid $875,000 to have the stairs, which were built by the Navy in 1942, repaired by contractor Nakoa Cos. Since that work was completed in late June, both the city and DHHL have used security guards to try to keep hikers off the stairs until access questions are cleared up.
What the City Council and Mayor Jeremy Harris approved yesterday is a temporary fix that will allow hikers to walk through DHHL land to reach the popular trail until Aug. 9. On-site parking would not be provided.
How soon that limited access will be allowed is up to the city's Department of Design and Construction, which was to begin today assessing how best to route hikers from public streets to the stairs.
The permit from DHHL directs the city to provide signs to direct hikers where they are allowed, to keep the premises clean and to be responsible for any risk or injuries.
The Hawaiian Home Lands Commission will consider at its meeting Tuesday on Kauai whether to issue the city a 20-year license granting it the same pedestrian-only rights as the 30-day agreement it approved yesterday, said Mike McElroy, DHHL land management administrator.
DHHL also has offered a midrange solution that could allow hikers to park inside the former U.S. Coast Guard Omega station until January, McElroy said. That proposal has not been forwarded to the City Council yet.
John Flanigan, chairman of the board of Friends of Haiku Stairs, said the developments "sound encouraging. ... It makes you feel like something's happening."
DHHL ultimately seeks a trade of the 158-acre Haiku Valley floor, which it does not see as useable for homesteading, for land better suited to its mission, McElroy said. Both shorter-term measures to give hikers access "are based on the mayor's commitment to execute a land exchange," he said.
City spokeswoman Carol Costa said Harris signed the resolution yesterday because "he was so anxious to have this move forward."
DHHL needs more developable land on Oahu, where it has the longest list of people waiting for homestead lots, McElroy said, and is willing to consider a three-way trade in which the city buys land and then trades it to DHHL for the Haiku Valley.
