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LAHAINA - Public opposition to a new ferry pier at Lahaina Harbor appears to be waning, with the state scaling the project back even further from an original, more ambitious plan in response to cultural and environmental concerns.

At the same time, state officials reported plans for a new harbor restroom facility have been broken off from the harbor expansion and will proceed along on a faster track – good news to virtually everyone tired of the dilapidated building that now serves the area.

But it's not all smooth sailing for the state Division of Boating and Ocean Recreation's plans. There are some in the community who fear that building new docks for larger vessels at the harbor will translate into more boat, pedestrian and vehicle traffic in a town already choked to the gills at peak periods, particularly when cruise ships come to town.

"The harbor can't take any new activity," said Native Hawaiian cultural specialist Akoni Akana, executive director of the Friends of Moku'ula, a group dedicated to preserving significant sites in the Lahaina Historic District, which includes the harbor.

He spoke Wednesday night at Lahaina Intermediate School during a meeting called to discuss issues that need to be studied in a state and federal environmental impact statement now being prepared for the ferry pier project.

Akana also objected to the harbor improvements being touted as a project that will benefit small ferries traveling between Lanai, Molokai and Maui so federal funding can be obtained, when in fact anyone will be able to use the new pier.

Initially, two new piers were contemplated by DOBOR, including a two-story ferry pier 145 feet long, with access via the seawall in front of the Lahaina Public Library next to the Pioneer Inn. That was later replaced by a single pier, 145 feet long and 90 feet wide.

The current plan is for a single pier that is 116 feet long and 35 feet wide, with a 35-foot buffer between the foot of the pier and seawall. The pier would be about 100 feet from the hauola stone along the seawall fronting the library. Some had feared the stone, a cultural site once used by royal Hawaiians for healing and giving birth, would be harmed by the initial expansion concept.

The revised plan provides a walkway, 12 feet wide and 60 feet long, connecting the new pier to the foot of the existing wharf. A one-story open-air structure would be built to provide shade on the new pier, and a similar shade structure may be added to the existing pier.

The ferry pier would be built with a portion of the $10 million available through the Federal Transit Authority for improving small harbors in Hawaii for interisland ferries. It is planned for the existing interisland ferries running from Lahaina to Lanai and Molokai, and is not being built to serve the proposed Hawaii Superferry, which plans to dock at Kahului Harbor.

In Lahaina, docking priority would be given to the smaller Molokai/Lanai ferries, DOBOR Administrator Richard Rice said, although he also said cruise ship tenders and commercial and recreational users would be able to dock at the new structure when the interisland ferries are away.

DOBOR is a division of the state Department of Land and Natural Resources, which is sponsoring preparation of the EIS in conjunction with consultant Munekiyo and Hiraga Inc.

A Lahaina resident and member of the Maui County Cultural Resources Commission, Ke'eaumoku Kapu, told the 60 people in attendance Wednesday night that the DLNR has overseen a steady erosion of traditional and customary Hawaiian rights over the years. He doesn't expect the current project will do anything to improve that record.

"The DLNR hasn't protected what it's supposed to protect," he said.

Kapu noted the current congestion in Lahaina town and said future population projections predict 26,000 west side residents in coming years, compared to the 15,000 that live there today.

"Get rid of the expansion – we don't want it," he said. "You're blinded by the money this is bringing in."

He said project opponents – and the Native Hawaiian community in particular – will be tracking the harbor expansion as it winds its way through the approval process.

"We'll be a part of this," he said. "We're not going away."

Albert Dizon, also a Native Hawaiian, said the expansion is just another step in the degradation of the west side.

"My kupuna and my grandchildren are telling me to speak up," he said. "The ships no care about the environment. . . . There's more stink every time they come."

Dizon said, as a lifetime Lahaina resident, he used to jump off the breakwater as a child and the water was crystal clear.

"Now you can't even eat fish that you catch off the breakwater. The fish stink," he said. "If you pass this, you'll have to answer to your grandchildren."

There were other complaints that even though the new pier is a separate facility, a walkway linking it to the existing wharf means all of the pedestrian and other traffic from both piers will be dumped at the same location.

If two cruise ship tenders and two interisland ferries are all tied up at the same time loading and unloading passengers, the result could be chaos, state planners were told.

Harbor user Tom Warren likened the expansion to the widening of a highway.

"If you put in four lanes, you're going to get four lanes of traffic," he said. "I'm concerned about pandemonium" at the harbor.

But others voiced qualified support for the project.

Chad Wylie, operations manager for Atlantis Submarines, said he thought the plan looked pretty good "as long as it doesn't affect surf and historical sites."

And Dave Jung, president of Sea Link of Hawaii, which runs the Molokai ferry service, said it would be "a big mistake" to pass up the money available from the federal government to improve Lahaina Harbor because of the concern that it would generate more boat traffic.

DOBOR is not expecting an increase in visits tied to the improvements, he noted.

He said in the early 1970s, a boat could tie up at the existing pier and stay all day performing maintenance without getting in anyone's way. But use of the harbor and the single pier, which is also the site of a fueling station and sewage pump-out station, has exploded since then, he said, and the new pier will allow for better management of boat traffic.

"We have to have some faith that we can control the number of ships," he said. "The number of cruise ship visits is a separate topic."

Jung said the interisland ferries provide residents, workers, youth sports teams and others with a cheap alternative for visiting other islands in the county at a time when air fares have sharply escalated.

There were several calls to regulate the number of visits by cruise ships, with harbor users telling of nightmare traffic tie-ups, particularly since new security restrictions were put in place after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

"There should be one cruise ship in at a time," said Mary Lindsey, a member of Mayor Alan Arakawa's Cruise Ship Task Force. "Not two, and never three."

State planners and their consultants were asked to look at alternatives to having pedestrian traffic from the ferry pier end up at the foot of the existing wharf.

The timeline for completion of a federal environmental impact statement for the project has been slowed down as well. Initially, DOBOR had hoped to complete the EIS by April to encumber federal funds for the project.

But that deadline was not realistic. The final EIS is now expected to be completed later in the year, with the goal of encumbering federal funds in the fiscal 2006 budget.

Even as the EIS is being completed, there are many other hoops that DOBOR has to jump through at the state, county and federal level before the ferry pier can be built, which will also give the public several more chances to express its opinions.

Several permits are also needed for the restroom facility, which will have 12 women's toilets and six men's toilets. An environmental assessment – not as extensive as an EIS – is now being prepared and the building could be finished in 2006.

Several people said the comfort station is needed as quickly as possible.

Doug Armfield, owner of Start Me Up Sportfishing, said if a new facility were to be built tomorrow, it still would have taken too long. He also said the state needs to add personnel at the harbor to help Harbormaster Hal Silva and his crew do their jobs.

"They need some help to manage the traffic," he said, saying the three-person crew at the harbor is now doing a "superhuman" job.

Those at the meeting Wednesday were told that all of their comments will be considered as a draft EIS for the ferry pier is completed. It will then be published, and the public will be given a chance to comment on the draft document before a final EIS is completed and sent to Gov. Linda Lingle's administration for acceptance.

Mark Adams can be reached at madams@mauinews.com.