HONOLULU — Efforts to dismantle Hawaii’s iconic “Stairway to Heaven” or Haiku Stairs are temporarily on hold — at least for now.

Friends of Haiku Stairs has filed a lawsuit against the City and County of Honolulu to block the demolition of the controversial stairs.

What You Need To Know

  • Work to dismantle the Haiku Stairs was supposed to have been started last week, but that removal has been paused pending a hearing on Friday, May 10

  • The hearing will determine whether the Friends of Haiku Stairs group gets a preliminary injunction to stop the demolition; the City and County of Honolulu expects work to resume after the hearing

  • The Haiku Stairs comprise almost 4,000 steps that the U.S. Navy built during World War II

  • In 1987, the Coast Guard officially closed the stairs to visitors, making it illegal to trespass there

Work to dismantle the Haiku Stairs was supposed to have been started last week, but that removal has been paused pending a hearing on Friday.

“The City has agreed to halt any further demolition work until the Court can hear our evidentiary hearing on Friday, May 10,” according to a notice posted on the Friends of Haiku Stairs website. “The hearing will determine whether we get a preliminary injunction, hopefully stopping the project pending trial,” the group said.

In a statement to Spectrum News, Ian Scheuring, Mayor Rick Blangiardi's deputy communications director, said the city is still doing preporatory work in anticipation of completing the demolition.

“The City’s project to remove the Haiku Stairs has not been halted, and work preparing the stair modules for removal is ongoing,” Scheuring said. “The City has voluntarily agreed to not physically remove any of the stair modules until the conclusion of an evidentiary hearing on May 10, at which point we expect to move forward with the removal as planned.”

The Haiku Stairs comprise almost 4,000 steps that the U.S. Navy built during World War II on the Koolau Mountains to reach a radio station.

In 1987, the Coast Guard officially closed the stairs to visitors, making it illegal to trespass there. Still, hikers have ignored the “no trespassing” signs for decades.

In an interview with Spectrum News in 2023, Sean Pager of Friends of Haiku Stairs said, “When the Coast Guard closed the station, they transferred the land, and it got divided between City and State. And suddenly there was no legal access, so people who wanted to climb the stairs found unofficial ways of getting there. It wasn’t really too much of an issue until the volume kind of increased.”

Former Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell vowed to keep the stairs, so the city took ownership of the land in July 2021.  

However, in June 2022, Blangiardi and the City Council said they would remove the stairs. 

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Pager said the popularity of the stairs skyrocketed after they were featured in an episode of the original “Magnum P.I.” With social media, the Haiku Stairs has basically gone viral. 

“The Stairs are a historic World War II monument eligible for the National Historic Register,” Friends of Haiku Stairs said on its website. “They offer a unique, world-class hiking experience, treasured for generations. It would be tragic to lose them.”

If the demolition project moves forward, it's expected to cost $2.5 million and take six months to complete. 

EDITOR'S NOTE: The original story was updated with a statement from Ian Scheuring, Mayor Rick Blangiardi's deputy communications director. (May 9, 2024)