A plan for the city to potentially condemn a privately owned segment of Ewa Beach’s North Road drew community support Tuesday.
During the City Council’s Committee on Executive Matters and Legal Affairs afternoon meeting, some Ewa Beach residents and a state lawmaker backed Council member Augie Tulba’s Resolution 107, which urges the city administration to take steps toward the eminent domain of the noncity, nonfederal portions of North Road due to health and public safety hazards.
Those stated hazards include a 1-mile stretch of the nearly 2-mile-long thoroughfare that has been left unmaintained, poorly lit and nearly unwalkable in places, making it unsafe for pedestrians (often school-age children) as well as motorists. The unmaintained segment of North Road has also invited large-scale illegal dumping of abandoned vehicles, junked appliances, piles of trash and other assorted waste, without abatement.
Currently, the road is owned and maintained in part by the city, the federal government and a private entity, YC Ewa Inc., which uses a tunnel underneath North Road. YC Ewa owns, manages and operates the golf course, clubhouse and pro shop at Ewa Beach Country Club at 91-050 Fort Weaver Road. The country club is abutted by Fort Weaver and North roads.
The thoroughfare connects the Ewa Beach community to schools, parks and churches. Among the schools affected is the 38-acre campus of James Campbell High School at 91-980 North Road.
And due to the area being an illegal dump site, the resolution says it’s “exposing the aina to continuous toxic environmental pollution.”
At the meeting, Tulba said attempts to fix this section of North Road have gone unresolved.
“The privately owned portion of the road has not been maintained properly, and lacks infrastructure and has become a health and safety hazard for residents in Ewa Beach,” he said. “This resolution would allow the start and the process for officially taking over this road.”
Ewa Beach resident Cory Asuncion, who is running for the District 40 state House of Representatives seat this year, supported Resolution 107.
“I lost a good friend on that road, actually a few of them,” he said at the meeting. “It’s very dangerous.”
At night, children walking on the road “need to use car lights to have vision on the road, and then jump out of the way when the cars pass by,” Asuncion said.
“One, there’s no lighting. Two, there’s no sidewalks. Three, the bicyclists always get hit because they have to share the road with the vehicles,” he added. “It’s very narrow, it’s very dangerous, it’s very dark … and we really need speed bumps there because of the speeding.”
Julie Reyes Oda, an Ewa Neighborhood Board member who is also running for the District 40 state House of Representatives seat, supported eminent domain.
“Resolution (107) is a way of addressing the community problem of North Road being used as a dump and its acquisition of its noncity and nonfederal portion for public purpose,” she said. “Please consider the voices in Ewa who ask for your help in providing safe communities for working families.”
State Sen. Kurt Fevella, whose District 20 encompasses Ewa Beach, also wanted to see the city acquire the privately owned portion of North Road.
“We want to make the road safer, and I think if the city can find a way to take jurisdiction of the road, I think it would be a plus for the community of Ewa Beach,” he said.
Although it garnered public support, city Department of Transportation Services Director Roger Morton remained neutral on the resolution’s intent.
“I’m not going to really comment too much on the resolution,” he told the panel. “I would point out that there are numerous private roads around the island, and the city’s policy on private roads is to accept them if they’re used by the public, after they have been brought up to city standards.”
But he noted that North Road “was originally a military road.”
“(It) wasn’t designed with city standards in mind; that’s just the reality. There’s other roads like that throughout the island,” Morton said.
To that, Tulba — who is running for reelection to the Council this year — asked whether DTS had an estimate on how many people use North Road on a daily basis.
“We don’t have an estimate, but we know that there is a large community that uses it,” Morton replied, adding, “I know there are children outside of the school bus hours that are forced to walk, sometimes on the roadway itself. So I’m really aware of the issues that the community has in trying to get through that fairly long section of roadway.”
Ultimately, the committee signed off on Resolution 107 for full Council adoption. According to Council staff, possible passage of the resolution will commence the eminent domain process.
The first step is to conduct a land survey and prepare relevant documents for the portion of North Road not owned by the city or federal government. This will include performing a title search to verify current ownership and appraising the road’s market value. Negotiations will be initiated to purchase the road at a fair value, Council staff said.
However, if an agreement cannot be reached, eminent domain proceedings might be initiated to acquire the road for public use and safety, Council staff said.
