Mililani school to expand

MILILANI — Hanalani School has a $4 million plan to build a student activities center and gym at the Anania Drive campus, but neighboring residents say the project would be too big, given its proximity to some homes, and would create traffic problems.

Hanalani School has applied for a conditional-use permit and a zoning variance to construct a 28,500-square-foot student activities center and a 2,211-square-foot maintenance building and add 41 parking spaces to its existing six-acre facility. A variance is required to allow the student center, which would be 32 feet 9 inches high, to exceed the legal height limit.

At a city Department of Planning and Permitting public hearing Friday, 20 people, including several Hanalani students, testified and most of them were in favor of the project. The department is expected to make a decision on the school’s permit request by May 8.

Philip A. Morin, member of the Hokuali‘i Hale Association, which comprises residents of a townhome complex adjacent to the school, testified that many people are concerned about increased traffic, noise and reports that the proposal calls for seven-day-a-week use of the expanded facility, which would be about 100 feet from their homes.

Morin said the facility would be used by basketball and volleyball teams and other school and community functions. Morin said the association does not believe that the building is appropriate in a residential neighborhood that already has a church and preschool, a neighborhood park, Hanalani School and a busy recreation center.

"Those of us who live nearby need to seriously look at the impact such a structure will have on our quality of life and how it may affect our property values," Morin said. "The key point of this whole thing is the intersection of Anania Drive and Lanikuhana Avenue is backed up every day with cars. You add 200 to 300 cars going to this auditorium and you’re not going to get a fire truck, an ambulance or a police car down there. Those people are endangering my and my neighbors’ lives."

Mark Sugimoto, school superintendent for Hanalani, said the building will be used for school events, such as the annual Lei Day pageant, and could be offered to area PAL teams, but it will not be used for any church services and will not be open seven days a week. He also said since there are no plans to increase enrollment, he does not anticipate any traffic problems.

Hanalani School is a Christian college preparatory day school for children in kindergarten through Grade 12. The school, which has more than 600 students, was founded in Wahiawa by Grace Bible Church in 1952 and moved to Mililani in 1980.

Sugimoto said that the school has never had a gym and that the building will improve the school’s physical education program and provide room to expand the library, computer center and art room.

"Everyone acknowledges that to be well balanced, you need to include physical involvement," Sugimoto said. "We want to improve on our athletics and our (physical education) program. If it’s a rainy day, the students are stuck in the classroom talking about sports."

"It means better education for the kids. For our mission, a smaller institution is more appropriate. We could grow a little bit with our current facilities, but our intent is not to become a large school."

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