What is the proposed Kyudojo?

The proposal is for around 8% of the park, including a large fraction of the usable flat space, to be turned into a specialized facility for Japanese archery (kyudo).  This will include a parking lot and two fenced in buildings.

Kyudo is a highly specialized sport, with only around 50 practitioners on the island.  (See this post.)  Proponents of the project have intimated that this project will open up the sport to the masses, but in private communication they admit that open shooting will be limited and that the capacity for training new archers is vanishingly small.

The construction costs are being paid by a private foundation, the Hawaii Kyudo Foundation, which is essentially just one married couple (according to the initial filing) though new names were added last year, probably because nonprofits need more than two board members.  In return, the City is transferring control of over $4 million (based on a conservative $200/sq.ft. valuation for this area) in public land to this foundation.  The HKF also gets an air-conditioned office, and storage facilities for their armory.

Proponents of the kyudojo insist that the facility will be "no cost to City", but that does not stand up to scrutiny.  While regular upkeep will be paid by the HKF, the City bears costs of operating (including utilities), environmental repercussions of the construction (such as neighborhood flooding issues), and any safety issues.  The HKF has openly acknowledged that if someone is injured by an errant arrow, the City will be the target of any subsequent lawsuit. 

If at any time there is a substantial additional cost, the HKF can simply dissolve, at which point all responsibility reverts to the City.  There is no mention of either a performance bond  or a construction bond (to protect the City if the project runs into a snag mid-construction) in the agreement.

This is a classic case of what is sometimes called the "privatization of control and socialization of liability", and sets a dangerous precedent for all public land on the island.