Chapter 206E, HRS, directs the Authority to create in the Mauka Area a community which serves the highest needs and aspirations of Hawaii's people. Such a community must provide all of the basic needs of its residents, employees, and visitors in a safe and socially desirable environment.

Social Proposals

To ensure satisfaction of social needs of the Mauka Area residents, employees and visitors, it is a policy of this plan that development be designed to facilitate the safe as well as enriching social interaction of people as they conduct their business and other activities within the community. Toward this end, this plan requires well designed, sensitive, attractive and accessible open space and recreational resources, pedestrian connections to activity centers, and public facilities that encourage the positive interaction of individuals and groups.

Residents social needs will largely be met by the provision of housing support facilities. To ensure effectiveness in serving the needs of residents, these facilities should be efficiently operated, financially self sufficient, and accessible to all residents. In addition, their operation should promote the well being of residents by ensuring that:

1. fees for their services are affordable;
2. priority be given to serving the residents and employees within the Mauka Area;
3. services are competently administered; and
4. needed public funding assistance is secured for services to low-income and needy elderly households.

Furthermore, efforts shall be made to provide appropriate and progressive child care and gerontology programs. To the extent possible, joint elderly-child care facilities shall be developed so that each group may benefit from its relationship with the other.

Public Safety Proposals

The concept of mixed use itself, as used in this plan, will help promote a safe and secure community. In a traditionally developed, single-use urban area like downtown Honolulu, there are periods of time in each 24-hour cycle during which there is very little human activity and interaction. This inactivity results in deserted streets which may be conducive to crime and vandalism. A mixed-use community providing a variety of business and residential activities, however, can be a place of continuing human activity thus decreasing the inactivity periods and acting as a possible deterrent to crime and vandalism.

The mixed-use community provided for by this plan represents a significant departure from the project-by-project, single-use concept of the Post World War II era. While the mixed-use concept is not new, it is to be implemented on a much larger scale by this plan, encompassing the entire Mauka Area rather than just a few businesses with owners "living above the store".

In addition, this plan provides for activities to take place on upper-level platforms, with vehicular traffic at the ground level. This will enhance the safety of people engaged in activities such as shopping, playing and walking from place to place. Landscaped platforms would be connected to each other by walkways over streets, enabling a person to work, shop and live without having to mix with street traffic.

The public sector is encouraged to exercise its police and fiscal powers to provide a safe and secure living and working environment. Areas of special concern include, among others, traffic safety and control measures, police and fire protection, acquisition and installation of private security systems or services, ensuring safe and pleasant pedestrian access to services, places of employment and recreation areas, and providing information on personal safety within developments.

Building interiors, grounds, landscaping, on-site parking and exterior common areas should be well-lighted and designed to minimize "pockets" in which intruders may cause harm to others. Well lighted views of open space areas, residential developments and parks from nearby activity areas and [publicways] public ways should help to reduce crime and assist in the watchful care of children and the elderly.

Safety shall be an element of consideration in all urban design review of Planned Developments. Emphasis should be placed on assuring the installation of adequate lighting, installation of security equipment or the hiring of security personnel, and the isolation of hazardous areas and facilities from access by children or the handicapped. Landowners and residents of the Mauka Area are encouraged to form informal neighborhood watches and other associations. This could be accomplished either on a building-by-building basis with either the owners or the lessees forming such groups or on a broader scale through neighborhood boards or community associations. Organizations of this type will not only help make the Mauka Area a secure community but also foster a sense of neighborhood or community.

It is also a policy of this plan that the health and general well-being of the Mauka Area community shall be maintained by the creation of a safe and secure area. Public and private efforts, jointly and separately, shall be directed to this end.

Appropriate rules shall be established to carry out these safety considerations.