JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO@STARBULLETIN.COM The Ala Moana/Kakaako Neighborhood Board wants to delay a $650 million development planned for the Kakaako waterfront. Geoff Jones signed a petition against the development earlier this month during a rally.

Neighborhood board seeks delay to Kakaako project

The board wants an environmental impact review and to kill the HCDA's ability to approve high-rises

THE Ala Moana/Kakaako Neighborhood Board has asked Gov. Linda Lingle and the state Legislature to delay a $650 million waterfront development in Kakaako pending a review of the process used to gather citizen input into the project's scope.

Alexander & Baldwin Inc.'s real estate unit, A&B Properties, is revising its plan for the development in hopes of assuaging citizen concerns. But the neighborhood board has raised concerns that go beyond the details of A&B's planned development, which includes retail space, park areas and 947 residential condominiums in two high-rise towers.

The board's concerns focus on the Hawaii Community Development Authority, a state agency in charge of managing redevelopment of the area, which consists of 36.5 acres of taxpayer-owned oceanfront land between Waikiki and downtown. The project encompasses the Kewalo Basin boat harbor and recreational areas popular with surfers, as well as a rusting, under-used light industrial area.

The project is meant to give A&B a financial incentive for redeveloping the area, creating greater public access to the shoreline, a public amphitheater and farmers market and about 190 condos to be sold at below-market rates.

In September, the HCDA announced it had selected A&B's proposal from a pool of applicants that had responded to a public request for proposals from developers. Since then, A&B's Kakaako plan has drawn criticism from concerned citizens, including surfers worried about access to the ocean and sailors concerned about a proposed bridge over the harbor's mouth.

In its resolution, the neighborhood board focuses not on A&B, but the HCDA. The board asks Lingle and the Legislature to delay any action on the project until the following have been completed:

» an environmental impact statement of the project;

» a "full review of the adequacy of HCDA's process of using community input prior to issuing RFPs;" and

» a revision of HCDA rules revoking the agency's power to approve high-rise buildings.

The neighborhood board's resolution came just weeks after U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie asked the Legislature to dissolve the HCDA, charging that the Kakaako plan fails to "take into account our ordinary hard-working people of Hawaii."

Nancy Hedlund, the neighborhood board member who introduced the resolution, said the HCDA failed to give the public a fair chance to participate in the creation of the request for proposals, or RFP, which defines the project's scope.

"Nobody I talked to knew of any opportunity to be part of any public meeting before an RFP was issued," she said.

Hedlund also criticized the inability of citizens to see the various proposals before the HCDA selected one. Hedlund acknowledged that the HCDA subsequently made A&B's plans available, but she said "that was after the decision" to choose A&B.

Daniel Dinell, executive director of the HCDA, said the agency held numerous monthly public meetings as it confected its plan for Kakaako and encouraged citizens to submit comments by e-mail and other methods. He said state law forbade the authority from revealing proposals until the HCDA had selected one of them.

Minutes of an earlier meeting held by the neighborhood board back in January show that Dinell attended the meeting and informed members that the HCDA was issuing a request for proposals for the project; Hedlund had not been elected to the board at the time.

The neighborhood board is an advisory entity and lacks the power to decide what comes of the Kakaako Waterfront project. That power is technically held by the HCDA, but it is unlikely that the project would move forward over objections of the governor and Legislature.

Lingle and House Speaker Calvin Say did not respond to requests for comment.

The situation puts A&B in a thorny position in which it is trying address all public concerns, even though some are beyond the company's control.

Stan Kuriyama, president and chief executive of A&B Properties, said he believes the company's revised plan will satisfy many of the project's critics. But Kuriyama also validated the criticism of some who have questioned the project's basic idea.

"Clearly, there are fundamental policy questions over the sale of state land for residential uses, and we fully appreciate that there are legitimate different visions for the Kakaako Makai area," he said. "The development proposal we submitted was to implement one of those visions -- HCDA's goal of creating a vibrant, thriving 'live, work, play and learn' new urban community at Kakaako Makai."

A&B said it would present detailed changes to the project to the HCDA's board by January.