I couldn’t believe the news yesterday when Gov. Abercrombie announced a planned public-private development in Kakaako. His announcement contained what was perhaps the first public disclosure the project is planned to include a high-rise condo towering fully 50 percent higher than the state’s tallest existing building.
The governor, with his normal relentless optimism, seemed blissfully unaware or unconcerned that the new tower, if finally approved, will set a precedent inevitably leading to a general increase in future building heights across the city.
I don’t know if it’s good idea or not, but I do know that such a radical increase in building heights deserved full and open public discussion of its pros and cons. The public deserved to be clearly informed that such a proposal was on the table, and have an opportunity to consider the best arguments for and against. Instead, it was slipped through the Hawaii Community Development Authority with minimal, if any, opportunity for the public to understand what was being proposed and what is at stake.
Governor Abercrombie was a member of the city council in the late 1980s when a Japanese company offered to build a convention center at no cost to the public in exchange for a variance allowing it to exceed what was then a 350-foot height limit. The resulting public furor was a key factor in scuttling that proposal. I guess that memory has faded in the governor’s mind.
Last night, I searched through agendas and minutes of prior HCDA meetings and failed to find any mention of a plan to allow building heights that will dwarf the city’s current 400-foot height limit.
Even the agenda for yesterday’s meeting failed to give the public any notice at all that it included Step One in the redrawing of Honolulu’s skyline.
Item 3 under the heading, “Kakaako Decision Making,” read simply:
3. Shall the Authority Authorize the Executive Director to Develop and Issue a Request for Proposal for a Mixed-Use TOD project on the Former Pohukaina School Site (690 Pohukaina Street, TMK: 2-1-051: 041)?
And with no further information readily available to the public about the agenda item, there was no realistic way to see this coming, although the governor was well aware of the proposal to blow through the current building height limit, since his testimony and public announcement were prepared in advance. But the public was left out in the cold.
I have to wonder whether there was enough public notice to meet the requirements of the sunshine law. Here’s a brief discussion from a 2007 opinion of the Office of Information Practices.
The clear purpose of the Sunshine Law’s notice provisions is to give the public the opportunity to exercise its right to know and to scrutinize and participate in the formation and conduct of public policy….
Given this purpose, OIP interprets section 92-7(a) to require that an agenda list each item the board intends to consider with sufficient detail and specificity to allow a member of the public to understand what the board intends to consider at the meeting and to decide whether to attend and to participate through oral or written testimony.
There are those in the development community who would like to see Honolulu look like Manhattan, a forest of high-rise towers that create their own environment. But for the past century, there have also been island residents who have fought to retain a sense of the island’s character, and each incremental increase in general building heights has triggered a battle between public aesthetics and private profits.
I don’t blame the governor for being blissfully unaware of the import of this one project. I do, however, blame his advisors for once again making it appear the governor is uninterested or unconcerned with what the public might think.
The comment attributed to Bruce Coppa, Abercrombie’s chief of staff and the state’s administrative director, seemed to me incredibly self-centered and dismissive of the broader public impact of a 650-foot skyline.
Coppa’s comment was reported by KHON:
“As a resident in Kakaako, Keola Lai, I live on the 28th floor and when I took a serious look at this, it doesn’t block our view,” said the governor’s Chief of Staff Bruce Coppa.
I’m glad it won’t block Coppa’s view, but that’s obviously not the end of the issue for the rest of us.
I made up a quick graph comparing the proposed new building to other prominent Honolulu high-rises. It’s rough, but gives an idea of what’s being proposed. Just click for a larger view.
![[text]](http://ilind.net/images_2011/690pohukaina.jpg)
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Another blatant evidence of State Capitol and Honolulu Hale being controlled by developers and corporations.
Yesterday both Mayor Carlisle and Governor Abercrombie wore layers of developers’ brand-name clothes.
I guess NA was not kidding when he said he would ‘communicate better’…….we had heard that Lingle’s wet dream was coming — of course it would occur in Kakaako. If you notice the latest proposed legislation for green cards and housing, NA may be preparing for the next wave of Asian money to drown the town — but all we do is look more like anyplace else USA with beach – and with the moveable feast coming from Japan at a clip, we may be not that desireable to visit anymore. I gather that the next offering is to be gambling, the bait for new high rises?
I do blame the Gov. and Mayor for being “blissfully unaware” of a blantant disregard for height limits in Kakaako! Thanks for catching them and reporting.
What’s the mayor got to do with this? Haven’t heard he was involved in this project, or that he agreed with tossing out the height limits. Is/did he?
There IS a height limit and regulation in Kakaako as a “special design”. Height limit of 40 ft. and not 400 ft. So what happen to the plan, did it change, if so why have HCDA and just go by the city’s plan. Why is it that nobody is holding this to the “governor and mayor” head. If they are not going to follow the plan then get rid of that office and SAVE money.
Transit Oriented Development is based on the construction of very densely populated condo buildings along the rail route. In fact, it makes good sense to upgrade Kakaako and increase the housing options. But I doubt any of us thought that the Governor, or anyone else, would take this to mean a 50% increase in building heights.
That makes me think this is a ploy, a bargaining position that will make folks feel they succeeded when the HCDA is backed down to *only* a 550′ building. Once that hurdle is cleared, further height creep becomes possible.
Personally, I pledge my support to opposing this blatant initiative to turn Honolulu into Hong Kong for the benefit of the”private developers”.
One has to wonder if the FAA was consulted on this.
It has voted down height increases in downtown before due to concerns that it is directly under flight paths of planes taking off and landing.
Honolulu Notes
Yes if you all remember some time ago when a plane came close to the buildings in down town Honolulu between the high rise. The most important thing is what about the “lava tubes” did anybody ask about this.
“There are those in the development community who would like to see Honolulu look like Manhattan, a forest of high-rise towers that create their own environment. But for the past century, there have also been island residents who have fought to retain a sense of the island’s character, and each incremental increase in general building heights has triggered a battle between public aesthetics and private profits.”
But urban Honolulu already does look like Manhattan or Hong Kong in that sense. It’s supposed to. That’s what its for.
Building a 600′ building amongst 400′ buildings does not exactly constitute the despoiling of the aina.
And if we are to have a rail system, this is the only way it is going to work. Unless there are twenty miles of high-density development along the rail route, Oahu will be essentially flushing $6 billion down the toilet with the rail.
So this high-density development is a non-problem in itself. And Abercrombie’s prior opposition to the development of a convention center is a sign of what an amateur he was (is?). In a certain way, rampant development is partly an outcome of the discrediting of an earlier romantic idealism that opposes any kind of development.
That’s what’s so fascinating about Abercrombie: he illustrates how two sides of the coin are identical. All over the world, people simultaneously want development but they don’t want development. It’s the ambivalence of modern life. The happy medium is, supposedly, some kind of ‘smart growth’ that protects rural areas from suburban sprawl through urban infill and walkable communities and mass transit with TOD.
But with something like the SuperFerry, we find that Hawaii is really polarized in its ambivalence. There are those who think that any development is good development, and those who think that any development is bad development. And it’s as if these are really two sides of the same “company town” mentality that loathes change. The developers are in control in Hawaii because the economy never diversified because construction workers want to live the way their father and grandfathers lived by swinging a hammer; conversely, there are people enjoying their domestic bliss by living in houses in rural areas and low rise suburbs — paradigmatic example of sprawl, really — who complain about new construction in already high-density areas in town.
So in itself, I don’t see any logic in condemning this kind of project. This is a righteous project.
The real problem is that the government is bypassing the rule of law and democracy. Once the government does that, then they will give the okay for building in rural areas, like with the Envision La`ie project. Not only will the taxpayer be stuck with the (massive) bill for infrastructure improvement, but Oahu’s tourism industry will be diminished. This will go against all the urban planning and smart-growth rhetoric that have been coming out of the politicians mouths for decades.
“Building a 600′ building amongst 400′ buildings does not exactly constitute the despoiling of the aina.”
But opening the door for a new height standard, so that most new buildings eventually go to that height, will significantly change the landscape, viewscape, etc., don’t you think?
That just the point they don’t think just about MONEY and not about the beauty of HAWAII
So, who prepared all the graphics that accompanied the announcement? HCDA staff? You think? Something makes me think a private developer has already got the architects and planners and engineers lined up and ready to roll.
This is a pretty big story…..in checking the Civil Beat site I see no mention of it. Good thing the SA covered it. Also, did anyone see LaFrance’s piece on Obama’s guy not being able to articulate the benefits of APEC. She needs to grow up. Her “gotcha” style of reporting is child like.
Nice work by the Gov’s new “communications” team. Apparently silence is the best approach.
A few months ago, I was advised by a pretty smart source that Abercrombie had set as his number one goal the reduction of the unemployment rate. The thinking was that this would lead to an economic recovery and (relatively) “shared prosperity.”
It is a reasonable goal, though one would hope it would be tempered by competing imperatives, like preserving the environment, preserving ag lands, following a comprehensive master plan for growth, etc..
This insight has led me to have serious concerns the administration will be “surprising” Ian and the rest of us, again and again, as he approves large-scale construction projects which, in a more prosperous time, would get much closer scrutiny. If a project is “shovel-ready,” or can be made “shovel-ready” during his term, it is much more likely to have help from the administration in getting fast-track approval.
It echoes the treatment the SuperFerry got from the Lingle administration, though more widespread. That is my worry. Among others.
I think you’re on to something. NA is showing that he’s still thinking like a legislator, not an executive. Cook up some seemingly good idea on paper, promote with generalities and grand pronouncements, then pass it off to the executive and let them worry about the “details.” Problem is, HE is the executive and he get no idea how to figure out the details!
We can only go up or spread out. Personally, I prefer up, but that’s a minor point. You have to agree to one or the other. We can’t be against up AND against out.
And as far as the Hong Kong comparisons go, i have spent a fair amount of time there and I think their decision wise. Get outside of Central and there is a lot of country.
Well, since our only choices are up or out, let’s go real big and put a 85 story building up. Yeah, that will lead to lower rents and more housing options. Shoots, let’s go for 110 stories.
I think the issue is not so much whether to build more condos in Kakaako but why we need to go to 650 feet. Oh, that’s right, developer profit.
If three 400-footers is better to you than two 600-footers, that’s fine with me. Maybe you think it’s just about developer profit, but I don’t think there’s developer profit unless someone buys the apartments.
I really don’t think taller buildings, by themselves, are “automatic rejects,” especially in existing areas having high rise bldgs, as long as they have adequate setbacks, transportation, water and other utilities available and are approved on a case-by-case approval.
However, view lines are another concern: in this case, the obstruction of Punchbowl and other views mauka (we should consider view lines even from the ocean, not just on land) and, correspondingly, sea views from mauka areas.
But this brings up what is potentially even a greater issue, although likely related: that Aloha Tower and Kakaako developments (ATDC and HCDA) should be disbanded asap as they’ve already served their mission (or as many suggest, have done too much damage)!
…looks like poor ol’ Neil just ain’t got appeal!
Hey, if Bruce is OK, we’re OK! What’s not to like?
Seriously, a project of this size on state lands will require an EA if not an EIS. If it needs or is forced into doing an EIS, there’s no way they’ll break ground on any of it in 2012, let alone in 4 months by February.
When I was in Reno not too long ago, I was aware the economy was worse there than Vegas. I saw casino skyscrapers like Fitzgerald’s and other sitting empty and boarded up. There were parts of Virginia Street I didn’t feel safe walking around at night. And this is supposed to be a town that operates fully 24-7. Another thing that was disturbing were the new skyscraper condos in downtown Reno that were also sitting empty, in fact the only lights on the building were at the top for the FAA to see it. Sad. You don’t want Honolulu to build skyscrapers and have them sit empty. They need to be filled with either tenants and/or businesses. How is the condo project coming along near the corner of Kalakaua and Young Street?