City Ordered To Partially Halt Haiku Stairs Dismantling As Lawsuit Appeal Continues
The order allows the city to remove stair sections only if they were already separated from the mountain.
Haiku Stairs will remain standing for at least a couple more months.
The Hawaii Intermediate Court of Appeals Wednesday ordered the City and County of Honolulu to partially stop its dismantling of the stairs.
The city can finish removing stair sections — known as modules — that it already had separated from the mountain, which it said is a public safety hazard for trespassers. But under the court order, it isn’t allowed to dismantle any of the other modules.
As of late June, about 75 modules of more than 600 had been separated from the mountain, primarily near the top.
The city has been dismantling the stairs since April using its contractor, The Nakoa Cos., a move that previous administrations had considered but never implemented.
But Friends of Haiku Stairs alleges that the city didn’t follow the correct procedures.
The group has two ongoing lawsuits against the city. The first is based on environmental laws and the second is related to historic preservation.
In January, a judge decided the first lawsuit against Friends of Haiku Stairs and the group appealed. It requested a preliminary injunction in June asking for the stairs to remain standing until the appeal is decided. The court granted that injunction Wednesday afternoon after hearing oral arguments the previous week.
The city’s environmental impact statement from 2020 isn’t sufficient, according to the lawsuit. One big reason is that an alternative “back way” of hiking to the peak has seen much more impact since that EIS was completed, an argument that the court said is credible enough that the group could prevail.
That comes about a month after a judge rejected the group’s request for an injunction based on their other lawsuit.
Haiku Stairs is a trail made of a metal staircase that climbs from Kaneohe to the top of the Koolaus. It has been illegal for decades, but a group of loyal fans would climb to the top anyway by either sneaking past security guards at the bottom or by hiking up the legal Moanalua side.
The city and the state shut down the Moanalua side in June for at least the remainder of construction, which at the time was thought to be about six months. Wednesday’s halt is likely to lengthen that timeline.
“This ruling underscores the urgency of addressing public safety concerns while allowing us to proceed with necessary actions in a responsible manner,” city spokesman Scott Humber said in a statement.
“We feel great about this decision,” Friends of Haiku Stairs Vice President Justin Scorza said. “We know that the fight’s not over yet, but we look forward to continuing the fight.”
The deadline for each side to file opening briefs is Aug. 5.
