About 70,000 cubic yards of sand is coming to Ala Moana Beach Park.
The Hawai‘i Board of Land and Natural Resources unanimously approved last Friday a $7.4 million project to restore the beach at Ala Moana Regional Park, which has diminished through erosion over the decades.
The project would be funded through the state’s newly implemented Green Fee, the increase in the state’s Transient Accommodations Tax that went into effect at the start of this year.
Under the terms of a memorandum of understanding between the state Department of Land and Natural Resources and the City and County of Honolulu approved by the BLNR Friday, the project would dredge up to 70,000 cubic yards of sand from offshore and deposit it along the Ala Moana shoreline.
At a one-foot depth, 70,000 cubic yards of sand could cover about 43 acres.
Laura Thielen, Director of the Honolulu Department of Parks and Recreation, explained to the BLNR on Friday that the sand replenishment project had been developed and planned years ago, with permitting completed in 2021. But when the Covid pandemic struck that year, funds that had been set aside for the project were diverted for various pandemic response projects. Subsequently, she said, her department lacked the cash to revisit the beach replenishment, hence the need for Green Fee funds.
Thielen said that, while the Ala Moana Regional Park is a county park, the City and County of Honolulu cannot spend bond money to restore the beach itself, “because the city does not have the title to the underlying property, just like you can’t get a mortgage on somebody else’s house.”
Under the original terms of the 2021 Conservation District Use Permit for the project, the City has until February 2030 to complete the project. Should the cost of the project exceed the $7.4 million in Green Fee funds, the City and County is under no obligation to spend additional county funds, and can simply reduce the project’s scope or terminate it.
Once the project is completed, the City will remain responsible for the beach’s maintenance.
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