HB2407 Haiku Valley Cultural Center

Monday, February 4, 2008

Testimony supporting HB2704, RELATING TO HA‘IKU VALLEY

To the members of the House Committee on Water, Land, Ocean Resources &
Hawaiian Affairs:

My name is Chris Anderson, and this testimony is sent in strong support
of the long-overdue reopening of Ha‘iku Valley— as a managed cultural
and natural preserve under the stewardship of appropriate government
agencies, and in cooperation with committed nonprofits such as The
Friends of Ha‘iku Stairs, the Ko‘olau Foundation, and the Ko‘olaupoko
Hawaiian Civic Club.

I have lived at the primary “entrance” to Ha‘iku Valley for the last 25
years; my home is across from the gate that was built a few years ago
to prevent access into the Valley (after the Omega Station was
decommissioned). As I write this testimony, that gate, once again, is a
puka-filled, torn-up mess that, at best, merely slows the flow of
people into the Valley. It injures the clumsy ones, who fall off of it
or get snagged on the barbwire, and it diverts the others through
nearby holes, or onto adjacent properties, including my neighbors', who
are understandably frustrated and angry about the situation.

This has gone on for years. The gate has never kept out anyone but the
most timid, and it never will, because it is not permanently staffed or
maintained. Also, it is not 50 feet high, reinforced with concrete,
electrified, and patrolled by packs of starving, vicious guard dogs.
Please believe me when I tell you, that is what it would take, and even
then enterprising hikers, pig hunters and tourists would just find a
way around it. They have for years already, day and night. The desire
to hike the Stairway to Heaven or provide food for their families is
too strong, and it will not go away. I have watched people go in and
out of our Valley for a quarter century now, and there was never a
problem until the Coast Guard base was decommissioned and the Valley
supposedly “closed” to the public.

Before that, when access was properly managed, people arranged with the
Coast Guard for entry, parked up on the base, signed the appropriate
waivers, and enjoyed their visits to the aptly named Stairway to
Heaven, or to the Omega Station itself. Then they left. They didn’t
park on our streets, tramp through our yards, drink water from our
hoses without asking, or leave their rubbish on our sidewalks. This
began to happen only in recent years, after the haphazard attempt was
made to close the valley to the public.

In the 1980s, I hiked the Stairway with brownie scouts, Bermuda-shorted
tourists, and 65-year-old mama-sans. It was not a life-threatening
hazard then, and it is in better shape now, since the $1 million spent
on its repair. All we need to make Ha‘iku Valley a recreational success
again is controlled access, dedicated parking on base, and thoughtful,
long-term management.

I served on the citizens’ visioning committee that collaborated with
Wil Chee Planners back in the 1990s to develop just such a plan. It’s
been sitting in mothballs for a decade now because of the inability of
the City & County and the Dept. of Hawaiian Homelands to reach an
accommodation about exchange or sale of the land. Ever since, our
neighborhoods have paid the price for this governmental gridlock. But
our vision for Ha‘iku Valley was simple: you manage it basically like
you manage Hanauma Bay. Fix it up and maintain it, limit access,
provide security and parking, engage nonprofits to help with on-site
education and community activities, and charge reasonable fees for the
public to get in and use facilities like the Stairway.

Ha‘iku Valley can be the natural, cultural, historical and recreational
resource that we imagined then, and that HB2704 begins to envision now
through establishment of the Ha‘iku Valley Cultural Preserve
Commission. It’s time, finally, to conclude the stalled deliberations
that have left the Valley and our community in limbo for years,
generating frustration and resentment in my neighbors, allowing the
valley to go to seed, and allowing its former military facilities to be
vandalized perhaps beyond repair. It's time, finally, to stop depriving
the public of a unique cultural, recreational and educational resource.

It’s time, finally, to open the Valley again, properly.

I ask respectfully that you support HB2704, and ask your colleagues in
the House and Senate to do so as well.
 

Mahalo,


Chris Anderson