It’s Been a Long Road for Baldwin Avenue Bike Path

Longtime Kula resident Warren McCord, 79, wears many hats. He and his family have owned and run the Kula Botanical Garden since 1968. McCord, a retired Air Force officer and landscape architect, has participated in environmental activities here for decades and is president emeritus of Maui Outdoor Circle. But since 2001, the project closest to his heart has been the establishment of a Baldwin Avenue bike path.

A less persistent person might have given up long ago.

McCord said he first became interested in the project beginning in 2001, when a bike path from Pa'ia to Makawao was prepared for the county by a Honolulu engineering firm.

Longtime Kula resident Warren McCord, president emeritus of Maui Outdoor Circle, has been an advocate for the Baldwin Avenue bike path since it was first proposed in 2001. Thirteen years later, he believes the project has a broad base of support, and would like to know what is causing the delay.

He said that plan was presented to public in July of same year and reviewed by a group of interested citizen and members of the Outdoor Circle.

"The plan," he said, "proposed widening Baldwin Avenue six feet on the north side and five feet on south side. This design eliminated all the landscaping for houses on the north side and removed every shower tree on south side."

"Needless to say, this design was unacceptable," he recalled. "What came next was a proposal by the Outdoor Circle to modify the original plan. In this version, it would run from the Makawao Cemetery to the Pa'ia Gym totally off the roadway and just below the shower trees. It called for a two-way, ten-foot-wide bicycle and recreation path and would not need to remove any trees or landscape features."

The modified plan was accepted by the county soon after.

"In order to project the shower trees planted by Ethel Baldwin around 1900 and later planting by Mayor Hannibal Tavares," McCord said, "an ordinance was drafted and passed by the council, placing all the shower trees on the exceptional tree list, which gave them legal protection."

McCord said "a second plan was prepared by the same engineering firm and presented in August 2003. This plan was based on the concept of the ten-foot-wide, two-way path below the shower trees. However, it had some grading issues, and both the county and the Outdoor Circle agreed that further thought would need to be given to the area near Rainbow Park. In order to improve the design, the Maui Outdoor Circle proposed a community design review."

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It's Been a Long Road for Baldwin Avenue Bike Path