HONOLULU, Hawaii -- Taxpayers will be paying thousands of dollars to send the mayor and eight Honolulu council members on a series of mainland trips later this month.

The group plans to study how cities handle development in the areas surrounding transit stops.

Though taxpayers agree with the basis of the research, they are questioning the group's travel plans.

Council members Todd Apo, Ann Kobayashi and Donovan Dela Cruz plan to check out transit-oriented development in Vancouver, Portland and Denver.

But Apo's already been on transit trips to Vancouver and Denver, said critics. They wonder why Apo didn’t look into transit development then.

“Ideally it could have looked at back then but I think so much of the focus over this past year has been just on the rail system,” said Apo.

Members of the project team admitted it would have been better to look into the transit system as a whole, but it was simply not logistical during previous trips.

“I have been to these cities several times or more but I never met the planning department or the planning side of this thing,” said Gary Okino, another Honolulu council member who will be traveling on another trip with other council members to many transit cities he's already seen.

Council members said the extra money for research is worth it because transit will be the city's largest public works project ever.